Former vice president of Agricultural Bank of China, Lou Wenlong, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance 15 months after his downfall, with a bribery amounting to over 84.51 million RMB (Chinese Yuan).
On August 25th, the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Fujian Province, China, publicly announced the verdict of Lou Wenlong, former member of the Communist Party Committee and vice president of Agricultural Bank of China, on charges of bribery. Lou Wenlong was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of bribery and all his personal assets were confiscated.
The court stated that from 2005 to 2024, Lou Wenlong, taking advantage of his positions as deputy director and director of the Banking Supervision Department of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission, director of the Beijing Supervision Bureau of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission, and vice president of Agricultural Bank of China, provided assistance to relevant units and individuals in matters such as regulatory approval, investing in city commercial banks, financing loans, and project contracting, using the convenience formed by his duties and power or status, and directly or through others illegally accepting money totaling over 84.51 million RMB.
On May 16, 2024, Lou Wenlong was officially investigated, having left the agricultural bank system for 7 years at that time. In November, Lou Wenlong was expelled from the party and transferred to judicial authorities. On June 6 this year, the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court publicly held a trial for the case.
Publicly available resume information shows that Lou Wenlong was born in January 1958 in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province. He used to be the Director of the Organizational Department of the People’s Bank of China’s Zhejiang Branch, the Director of the Banking Inspection Department of the Hangzhou Financial Supervision Office of the Shanghai Branch of the People’s Bank, and the Deputy Group Leader of the Supervision Group of China Construction Bank in the Bank Supervision Department of the People’s Bank.
After the establishment of the China Banking Regulatory Commission in 2003, Lou Wenlong served as deputy director and director of the Banking Supervision Department, in charge of supervising joint-stock banks and city commercial banks. In February 2009, Lou Wenlong became the director of the Beijing Supervision Bureau of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
In August 2012, Lou Wenlong joined the Agricultural Bank of China, where he was responsible for asset-liability management, non-performing loan disposal, and the Agriculture, Rural Areas, and Farmers Department during his nearly five-year tenure.
In April 2017, Agricultural Bank of China announced that due to job changes, Lou Wenlong resigned from the positions of executive director and vice president of Agricultural Bank of China, as well as member of the Board of Directors’ Strategic Planning Committee and the “Three Rural” Financial Development Committee.