Suzhou prosecutors have charged the former head of one of China's largest liquor producers with corruption, the Procuratorate Daily said yesterday.

Wang Xiaojin, 59, the former chairman of the Gujing Group in Anhui province was put under investigation in April last year for alleged corruption and formally charged on Monday, the official newspaper of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said.

Investigations showed that Wang took bribes totaling about 10 million yuan ($1.46 million) from advertising agencies, liquor companies and other firms in return for offering preferential treatment, the Suzhou procuratorate said.

High-profile corruption suspects are usually charged and their cases heard in a different jurisdiction to avoid local influence.

Ten other high-ranking officials of the Gujing Group were arrested last year for "suspected serious discipline violations".

So far, five of them who took bribes ranging from 2 million yuan to 7 million yuan, have received sentences ranging from seven years to death by a court in Bozhou, where the company is based.

Guo Xinmin, deputy manager of the sales department of Gujing Distillery Co, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Guo received more than 6.4 million yuan in bribes. Five others remain to be charged.

Wang has been dismissed from his posts of vice-chairman of the local branch of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the liquor company. In October, Wang was stripped of his post as a deputy to the NPC.

Wang was appointed chairman of the company in 1987 and then turned the loss-making firm into one of the biggest in the country through aggressive marketing.

Gujing Group, which is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, is a State-owned enterprise.

Its liquor sales grew 8 percent to 2.43 billion yuan in 2005. Its market share is about 15 percent.

(China Daily July 4, 2008)