The former chairman of the Bank of China, Liu Liange, was on Tuesday sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption and illegal issuance of loans. He was found to have accepted bribes worth over 121 million yuan (USD 16.8 million), a court in Jinan city in China's eastern Shandong Province said in its verdict. Liu was deprived of political rights for life, all of his personal property will be confiscated, and all his illegal gains must be recovered and turned over to the state treasury, the court sentence read, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The court found that Liu had taken advantage of his various positions at the Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China, respectively, to assist others in matters such as loan financing, project cooperation and personnel arrangements -- while illegally accepting bribes in return. Moreover, he was found to have knowingly facilitated the issuance of loans totalling more than 3.32 billion yuan to unqualified companies in ...