Deported China banker given 12 years in prison

SHANGHAI, April 1 (Reuters) A former Bank of China manager convicted in the United States before being deported to face corruption charges at home has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, the official Xinhua news agency reported today.

It said Yu Zhendong was sentenced yesterday by the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Jiangmen, in China's southern Guangdong province.

The court also ordered confiscation of 1 million yuan (125,000 dollars) from Yu, who was charged with graft and embezzlement of public funds, Xinhua said.

A former head of the Bank of China in the city of Kaiping, Yu was accused of collaborating with two other bank executives to embezzle 82 million dollars from the bank, according to Xinhua.

The trio also used names of other enterprises to apply for loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the report said.

All three fled to the United States and Canada in 2001 via Hong Kong.

A U S federal court in Las Vegas sentenced Yu to 144 months in prison in February 2004 after he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.

Yu was repatriated two months later on China's promise that he would not be tortured or executed, or sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.

Xinhua did not say what had happened to the other two bankers.

REUTERS TM BST1440