A former securities company branch chief was executed for embezzling almost 70 million yuan and misappropriating another 25 million yuan, the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court said.

Yang Yanming, 51, who was the former general manager of a Galaxy Securities branch in Wangjing, Chaoyang district before he was arrested in 2004, became the first person employed in the securities industry to be executed in China Tuesday.

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After the Supreme People's Court reviewed and upheld by the intermediate court's ruling, Yang was executed in Beijing. However, the whereabouts of more than 60 million yuan are still unknown.

Yang, who recently suffered a heart attack, appeared at the Beijing court Tuesday morning to listen to the final verdict, the Beijing Evening News reported.

"Someone has to be responsible for this. If I did not commit suicide, I might not have been found," Yang, dressed in the prison uniform of a gray shirt, blue pants, and a pair of cloth shoes, told the court, according to the newspaper.

His two sisters visited him for the last time Tuesday, but his former wife, whom he divorced before he was arrested, did not.

Yang was found to have embezzled 65.36 million yuan from his company between June 1998 and August 2003.

Between January and April 2002, Yang sold securities and funds owned by his branch and pocketed 3.76 million yuan from the sale.

He also transferred 24.8 million yuan to his personal account between August and December 2000. Police only recovered 12.7 million yuan.

In addition, when he was removed from his general manager position in November 2003, he stole another 600,000 yuan from the company account. He destroyed documents to cover his crimes in February 2004 and divorced his wife in the same month, the Mirror Evening News reported.

On April 23, 2004, after Yang was transferred to Galaxy Securities headquarters, he tried to commit suicide but survived.

During the investigation and trial, Yang denied all charges and said he did not know where the money was.

The Beijing No 1 Intermediate Court sentenced Yang to death in December 2005, but he appealed.

The high court ordered a retrial in the intermediate court in May 2007 on the grounds that the whereabouts of the money was important. The intermediate court maintained the original sentence and said that even if the whereabouts of the money is unknown, it was not a reason to change the sentence.

Yang appealed again. When he was tried at the Beijing High Court, Yang said he spent the money to bribe some people, but refused to say where the money went.

Before the final verdict was delivered Tuesday, a judge visited Yang and asked him to reveal the names of people he bribed, but Yang refused, the Mirror Evening News reported.

Metro