Zhang Rongkun, who was a key figure in the misuse of 3.45 billion yuan ($473 million) from Shanghai's social security fund, went to a first-instance trial on December 27-28, 2007, in Songyuan City, Jilin Province.

Zhang, 38, Chairman of Fuxi Investment Corp., is charged with paying bribes totaling 30 million yuan ($4.1 million) to government officials and company heads in Shanghai to obtain the money, which is meant to cover a population of 12 million, for illicit loans and investment. After the scandal was uncovered in the middle of 2006, all misappropriated funds, including interest, totaling 3.7 billion yuan ($502 million), was retrieved.

The probe against Zhang led to the arrest of senior officials including former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu and former national chief statistician Qiu Xiaohua, as well as several business executives. Chen, who was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) in July 2007, is the highest-ranking Party official to be axed in more than a decade.

At the trial, Zhang, the 16th richest person in China according to the Forbes 2005 list, pleaded guilty to most charges against him, his attorneys revealed.

Prosecutors accuse Zhang of bribing Zhu Junyi, former Director of the Shanghai Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau and the fund's operator, and his family with money and valuables worth 1.31 million yuan ($180,000). Last September, Zhu was sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment.

In addition to bribery, Zhang is also indicted on charges of manipulating the stock market, conducting fraud in issuing bonds and faking registered capital.

Court sources said that the first-instance ruling against Zhang would be announced soon.

In December 2007, several other high-ranking officials involved in the social security fund misappropriation also received punishment. Among them, Qin Yu, former chief of the Shanghai's Baoshan District and long-term secretary of Chen Liangyu, was given life imprisonment. Sun Luyi, former Vice Secretary General of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Both men were convicted of influence peddling and power abuse.