Bank of China welcomes convictions in huge embezzlement case

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — The Bank of China, one of the nation's top lenders, Tuesday welcomed the conviction in the United States of two former managers for record-setting fraud estimated at nearly half a billion dollars.

The two, Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun, were convicted by a federal jury in Las Vegas on Friday of masterminding a plot to embezzle 485 million dollars, the China Daily reported, calling it the biggest case of its kind since 1949.

"(The conviction) is good news," Wang Zhaowen, Bank of China spokesman, told AFP. "It is still undergoing the legal process -- it's just conviction and a sentence is yet to come."

The newspaper quoted Zhang Yong, a legal expert at Nankai University in north China's Tianjin city, as saying the conviction would serve as a warning...