Hong Kong (CNN) A military court in China on Monday sentenced former top official Guo Boxiong to life in prison for accepting bribes, according to state media.
“His personal assets were seized, and all his illicit gains were confiscated and turned over to the state treasury,” state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Guo was a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which runs the People’s Liberation Army, the world’s largest standing army.
The court stripped Guo of his rank as general and deprived him of political rights for life, according to Xinhua.
China sacked one of its top sporting officials on July 16 because he’s under investigation over allegations of corruption. Xiao Tian has been removed from his post as the deputy director of the General Administration of Sport (GAS). He’s also a vice chairman of China’s national Olympic committee, and was often its public face.
Xu Caihou was the most senior military figure caught up in the corruption dragnet. However, the former People’s Liberation Army general didn’t face prosecution because of ill health and died of bladder cancer in March 2015. His rank was revoked after an investigation found he took bribes to facilitate promotions. Local media reports said the general had so much cash stashed away at his home that it took a week to count, and 12 trucks to haul it away.
A former member of China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, Zhou Yongkang is now serving a life sentence for corruption and other crimes. He was tried in secret in May 2015 and sentenced to life in prison in June. He’s the highest ranking official to fall victim to Xi’s graft crackdown.
Once a rising star of the Chinese Communist Party, Bo Xilai fell from power in an explosive scandal involving murder, betrayal and financial skullduggery. Bo pleaded not guilty and challenged the prosecution’s case in a rare public trial. He was jailed for taking bribes, embezzlement and abuse of power. His career unraveled after his wife, Gu Kailai, poisoned a British businessman, and his right-hand man, Wang Lijun, fled to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.
Photos: China’s corruption crackdown nets more victims
A Chinese court in the northern city of Tianjin sentenced a former vice minister of public security to 15 years in prison for corruption, state media reported Tuesday, January 12. Li Dongsheng, 60, was charged with taking almost 22 million yuan ($3.3 million) in bribes from 2007 to 2013. He was a protégé of disgraced former domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang, who was sentenced to life in prison in June 2015 for corruption offenses.
