Ex-staffers of Guo Wengui convicted

Three former executives of fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui were convicted of fraudulently obtaining loans and banker's acceptances on Friday, and two of them received prison sentences, a court in Henan province said on Friday.

Zhang Xincheng, former financial director of the Henan Yuda Real Estate Co, controlled by Guo Wengui, was sentenced to two years in prison, while Guo Lijie, the company's former deputy manager, was given a 18-month sentence in jail with a two-year reprieve, according to a verdict handed down by the Kaifeng Intermediate People's Court in Henan.

Another defendant, Xiao Yanling, the ex-deputy head of the company's financial department, was convicted of fraudulently obtaining the banker's acceptance, a type of short-term debt, but she was exempted from a prison term, "as her crime was less serious than the others and she voluntarily surrendered after she was detained," the court said.