Breaking News: Chen Liangyu gets 18 years in the slammer

Chen Liangyu (陈良宇), the former Mayor of Shanghai and member of China's Politburo, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty on taking bribes and abusing power. During the course of the trial in Tianjin, it was revealed that amount of money stolen of Shanghai's pension fund, $480 million USD was 10 times worse than initially believed, somewhere in the neighborhood of 33.9 billion RMB ($4.8 billion USD).

If you remember, back in late September 2006, he was removed from his posts by the central government and placed under arrest. Some analysts say Chen's close association with former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other leaders of the so-called "Shanghai faction" led to his political demise. Another figure in the pension scandal, Zhang Rongkun, was sentenced a few days ago to 19 years in prison.

Picture from Rednet.cn