A court in eastern China has sentenced a former municipal official to death for accepting more than 2.2 billion yuan ($325 million; £243 million) in bribes over 30 years.

Yang Youlin, who held various positions in the city of Nanjing from 1993 to 2023, was also convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering, and his illicit profits amounted to one of the highest in recent years.

The 69-year-old used his roles to help others secure engineering contracts, land transfers and financing, in exchange for money and valuables, state media said.

Yang was investigated as part of President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which has affected the military ranks and high-level banking, among other sectors.

Yang, who spent much of his career working in economic and technological development in Nanjing, had committed crimes “of an extremely serious nature” and “caused exceptionally serious losses to the interests of the state and the people,” a Changzhou city court said on Monday.

Since coming to power, President Xi has launched waves of anti-corruption campaigns, which critics say have also been used as a tool to purge his political rivals.

However, death sentences for white-collar crimes remain rare, although they are occasionally imposed, usually if the cases involve large sums exceeding one billion yuan.

For example, former finance chief Lai Xiaomin was executed in 2021 for accepting 1.8 billion yuan in bribes over a 10-year period.

Li Jianping, a former Inner Mongolia official, was executed in 2024 for embezzlement and accepting bribes totaling more than 3 billion yuan.

In many other cases, courts imposed suspended prison sentences or death sentences, which are commuted to life imprisonment after a specified period.

Courts have also reduced sentences in some cases where the convicted denounced other criminals.

But although Yang provided similar assistance to authorities, his crimes were so “serious” that his assistance “was insufficient to justify a more lenient punishment,” the Changzhou court said.

Yang pleaded guilty and “expressed remorse in his final statement,” according to state media.