Former president of China Citic Bank pleads guilty to accepting 1 billion yuan in bribes

Sun Deshun, who expressed remorse for accepting payments worth US$155 million, will be sentenced at a later date

His case is one of the biggest in an ongoing crackdown targeting China’s financial sector, which has seen one executive put to death

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Sun Deshun, the president of Citic Bank pleaded guilty to accepting bribes worth more than 979.5 million yuan (US$155 million). Photo: Handout

Published: 4:30pm, 23 Feb 2022

A former president of China Citic Bank Corporation, one of the country’s largest state-owned banks, went on trial on Tuesday accused of taking almost one billion yuan in bribes.

Sun Deshun, the president of Citic Bank between 2016 and 2020, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes worth more than 979.5 million yuan (US$155 million) over a 16-year period working for different banks, according to a statement by a court in Shandong province.

The Intermediate People’s Court in Jinan city said that Sun took advantage of his positions to illegally help others to obtain loans and credit lines between 2003 to 2019.

The statement said Sun expressed remorse for his actions. His sentence will be announced at a later date.

His is the second biggest bribery case so far in the anti-corruption drive targeting China’s financial sector.

Last year Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of the asset management firm Huarong, was executed after being found guilty of taking 1.8 billion yuan in bribes.

Sun was detained by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection – the Communist Party’s top anti-corruption agency – in March 2020. Two month later, he was stripped of his party membership and official position, and handed over to the judiciary to face prosecution.