A transport official in Yuncheng, Shanxi, reinvented almost his entire personal history and erased his criminal record with the help of his father, the city's deputy party chief, before joining the civil service.
The real identity of Tong Xiao, a former deputy division head of Yuncheng's transport bureau, was exposed when he was arrested last year, the People's Court Daily reported. It failed to give the father's name.
The city's Intermediate People's Court gave Tong, 38, a suspended death sentence on Monday for organising gangs, murder, possessing and trading guns, drug taking, rape, gambling and other serious charges.
The report said 79 people were involved in Tong's crimes, with 41 being government officials in Yuncheng. Eight received prison sentences ranging from one year and five month to 12 years.
A suspended death penalty on the mainland usually becomes life imprisonment, which in turn can be reduced for good behaviour, but the court said Tong's sentence should not be reduced, the newspaper said.
Tong was also charged with accepting nearly 22 million yuan in bribes from 2005 to last year when he was in charge of the transport bureau's traffic management and driving school sections, Xinhua said.