A former senior banking executive has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for accepting bribes, with a fund company among the entities implicated.

The verdict from the Yangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province has brought Dang Junzhang back into the public eye. He previously held the prominent position of General Manager of the Financial Markets Department at Postal Savings Bank of China Co.,Ltd. (ASX: PSBC), overseeing a massive portfolio of funds.

The court determined the total amount of bribes accepted to be 7.98 million yuan. One portion of this sum, amounting to 240,000 yuan, was provided by a fund company.

According to the court documents, between late 2016 and the end of 2019, a fund company chairman surnamed Wang gave Dang Junzhang 240,000 yuan in cash on multiple occasions. The purpose was to seek Dang's assistance regarding the purchase of fund products.

This particular transaction is notable for its timeline. Dang accepted the money while largely still within the PSBC system. Several years later, in October 2021, he himself became the chairman of a fund company, Yimin Fund. He served in that role until his retirement in April 2023, after which he held a position as chief economist at Guolian Fund.

The 240,000 yuan represents only a fraction of the total bribes. The court identified five separate bribe transactions totaling 7.98 million yuan. The largest single bribe was 5 million yuan, delivered in cash in two suitcases in an underground parking garage in Beijing's Financial Street. This payment came from Zhu Chao, the actual controller of Shanghai Yinhuang.

Other bribes included approximately 1.02 million yuan from QX Group, 800,000 yuan from asset manager Huaxia Jiuying, 750,000 yuan (of which 240,000 was not actually received) related to business from his tenure at Zhongyou Life Insurance, and 170,000 yuan from branch presidents of PSBC's Shanxi and Jilin branches.

Dang Junzhang's career followed a trajectory common in finance. Born in 1963, he started at the People's Bank of China's Jiayuguan branch in Gansu province. He later rose to become president of Lanzhou Bank before joining PSBC in 2007. He assumed the role of General Manager of the Financial Markets Department in 2013, was transferred to become General Manager of Zhongyou Life Insurance in 2017, and later served as vice chairman of Baoneng Group and chairman of Qianhai Life Insurance after leaving Zhongyou Life at the end of 2020.

Dang was taken away by supervisory authorities from his home kitchen on May 10, 2025. The proceedings from his detainment to the first-instance verdict took less than a year.

Unlike many corruption cases, Dang Junzhang firmly denied all charges during the first-instance trial, including the 5 million yuan cash payment and the 240,000 yuan from the fund company. He has filed an appeal, and the case will proceed to a second trial.