A former director of a State-owned bank in Jiangmen, Guangdong province, was sentenced to life imprisonment for illegal lending, Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Friday.

Lin Jianzhong illegally lent 130 million yuan ($21 million) in loans and HK$15.9 million ($2 million) to a private company in Jiangmen, and received 40 million yuan in rebates from the company in October, 2002. In August, 2005, Lin resigned from the bank and joined the company.

A court in Shenzhen heard the case on Sept 17 and made the judgment. Besides life imprisonment, the court also confiscated Lin's personal property and 20 million yuan of the illicit money as well as real estate bought with the illicit money.