July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Chen Tonghai, a former chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation’s second-biggest oil company also known as Sinopec, has been given a suspended death penalty for bribery, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Chen was handed the sentence with a two-year reprieve by a Beijing court today after he was convicted of taking 196 million yuan ($28.7 million) in bribes, Xinhua said. He has the right to appeal the punishment and people given a suspended death penalty in China typically have the sentence commuted.

A former vice minister of planning, the 60-year-old Chen is among several high-ranking public figures caught in corruption probes amid rising public opposition to official graft. Last year Chen Liangyu, Shanghai’s former Communist Party chief, began serving an 18-year prison sentence for bribery and abuse of power.

The impact on Sinopec would be “limited,” said Grace Liu, an energy analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen, because the case was made public two years ago. “When it first came to light it was damaging, but the management of the company has proceeded smoothly.”

Chen’s sentence was suspended because he returned all the bribes he had taken, admitted his crimes and provided clues on the offences of others, Xinhua cited court officials as saying.

‘Unlawful Profits’

The former Sinopec chairman took “bribes to help others, including his mistress, made unlawful profits and led a ‘corrupt life’,” Xinhua reported, citing the legal authorities.

“Corrupt officials, no matter what power they have, what positions they hold, they will be seriously punished,” Xinhua quoted unnamed court officials as saying.

Chen, a petroleum engineer by training, joined Sinopec unit Zhenhai Petroleum in 1983. He was appointed deputy mayor of the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo in 1989 and served as mayor from 1992 to 1994. He was vice minister of the State Planning Commission, the forerunner of the National Development and Reform Commission, for four years until 1998.

As Sinopec’s chairman, Chen was a frequent guest at international events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Chen took part in a panel discussion on the competitiveness of Chinese companies at Davos in January 2007.

Five months later, Chen was removed from his post as president of China Petrochemical Corp., the parent of Sinopec, at a meeting attended by officials from State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration and the Communist Party, the parent company said at the time. He subsequently resigned as Sinopec’s chairman.

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Last Updated: July 15, 2009 06:23 EDT