A Chinese court on Friday sentenced a former transport official in the eastern province of Jiangxi to 16 years in jail for taking bribes and misuse of authority.

Pu Rixin, who once served as director of the provincial transport department, received the guilty verdict from the Intermediate People's Court of the city of Ji'an.

The court found that Pu accepted bribes from several companies, including 4.15 million yuan (about 657,000 U.S. dollars), 52,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 6,699 U.S. dollars), a gold bar worth 69,500 yuan and an OMEGA wristwatch worth 20,000 yuan.

In return, he took advantage of his position to assist the companies in winning contracts for construction projects between 1999 and 2008, said the statement.

The court also ordered the confiscation of 300,000 yuan of Pu's property.

Pu was given a lenient punishment because he confessed to all his crimes and handed in all the bribe money, the statement said.