BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Xu Fangming, former director of the finance department of China's Ministry of Finance, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday for taking bribes.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found that Xu took more than 2.14 million yuan (about 267,500 U.S. dollars) in bribes between 1997 and 2000.

According to the court, in 1997, Xu helped the head of an investment consultancy firm, Han Bing, to win a contract worth more than 400 million yuan (50 million dollars) for a car leasing business from the Agricultural Development Bank of China. Han was awarded more than 7 million yuan (875,000 dollars) in commission from the leasing firm.

In 1998, Xu also helped Han to sell office space to the Shenzhen branch of the Agricultural Development Bank of China for which Han was paid more than 2 million yuan (250,000 dollars).

In return for the two deals, Han gave Xu 864,000 yuan (108,000 dollars) in four installments and a lump sum of 200,000 yuan (25,000 dollars).

According to the court, Xu also accepted over 1 million yuan (128,000 dollars) in bribes in three installments from another company to help it seek gains in 1999 and 2000. Enditem