Two bank employees responsible for China's largest bank theft, involving 50.95 million yuan (7.28 million U.S. dollars), were executed in Handan, northern Hebei Province on Monday.

Ren Xiaofeng, 35, and Ma Xiangjing, 38, who worked as vault managers at the Handan branch of the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) in Hebei, were convicted of theft and given death penalties at the Handan Municipal Intermediate People's Court after the first-instance hearing on Aug. 9.

Ren and Ma lodged appeals after the sentence, which was upheld by the Hebei Provincial Higher People's Court at the second-instance hearing on Sept. 19.

The death sentence has been approved by the Supreme People's Court, a spokesman of the Handan court said on Monday.

"Ren and Ma, as staff members of state-owned bank, committed graft by taking advantage of their posts to embezzle a huge amount of public money. The crimes were extremely serious and should draw the death sentence under the law," the spokesman said, citing the review of the Supreme People's Court.

Earlier reports said that Zhao Xuenan and Zhang Qiang, who joined Ren in embezzling 200,000 yuan in October 2006, were sentenced to five years and two years in prison, respectively, with a two-year reprieve.

Song Changhai was jailed for three years for harboring Ma when he was on the run.

Court hearings found that in October 2006, Ren conspired with Zhao Xuenan and Zhang Qiang, who were both employed to guard the vault, to embezzle 200,000 yuan.

The money was spent on lottery tickets, but Ren later replaced the missing fund after he won a lottery prize.

From March 16 to April 14 last year, Ren collaborated with Ma, who replaced Zhang Qiang as a bank employee, and stole 50.95 million yuan in cash.

The theft was reported to police on April 16 by branch managers after they found millions of yuan had gone missing and the Public Security Ministry placed Ren and Ma on its most wanted list.

Police arrested Ma in Beijing on April 18 and Ren in a rented house in Lianyungang, a coastal city in Jiangsu Province, a day later. Police said they retrieved about 5.5 million yuan and found that about 45.35 million yuan had been squandered on lottery tickets.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2008)