Tycoon Yang Bin gets 18 years' jail

Once the mainland's second-richest man, he is convicted of bribery, fraud

The fall from grace of the mainland's second-richest man was complete yesterday, when a court jailed Yang Bin for 18 years and fined him and two of his companies a combined eight million yuan for crimes including bribery and fraud.

Nine months after the orchid farmer and property developer with a reputed US$900 million fortune was picked by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to head a special economic zone, associates said he had so little money left he could not even pay the fine, equivalent to HK$7.5 million.

The Shenyang Intermediate Court imposed the maximum sentence on Yang, a Dutch national, after finding him guilty of bribery, raising capital on false pretences, illegal use of farmland, financial fraud and use of false financial statements.

The punishment is far harsher than Yang and his supporters had expected.

'Yang feels it is a very heavy blow,' one of his associates said. 'He is very depressed. He had expected a sentence of no more than 10 years.'

Prosecutors had reportedly offered Yang a deal under which he would be given an 18-year sentence but serve only two years in a mainland jail before being expelled to the Netherlands. But Yang believed the sentence was too severe and would tarnish his reputation, so he rejected the deal.