Former senior banker convicted of corruption dies in custody in China
Tao Liming charged with graft offences after he served as president of Postal Savings Bank
A former senior banker in China convicted of corruption has died in custody and his family has requested an autopsy because the cause of his death is unclear, mainland media reported.
Tao Liming, 62, the former president of the Postal Savings Bank of China, died in custody on June 1, according to the news outlet Caixin.
The Shanghai-based news website Thepaper.cn cited Tao’s lawyer Gao Zicheng as saying that the former banker died of a heart attack. Gao also confirmed that Tao’s family has demanded an autopsy.
Tao was charged with taking bribes, embezzlement and other offences in June 2014.
He pleaded guilty at a court hearing in Henan in 2014, Caixin said, citing bank officials and regulators.
Gao was quoted as saying by Thepaper.cn that Tao was jailed for life by a court in December last year, but he had been appealing against the sentence.
Tao was initially arrested in December 2012 on suspicion of illegal fund raising, according to an announcement made by the savings bank.
The Communist Party’s anti-corruption body placed him under a disciplinary system equivalent to house arrest for Communist Party members the same year.
The banking regulator granted the savings bank a licence to operate in 2007, with ambitions of transforming it into a giant retail bank.
