A poster of the China Southern Airlines. (file photo)

A former top official at Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines Group was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Friday while another got five years in prison for embezzling a total of 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million).

Three people were accused in the case - finance department director Chen Liming, group vice-general manager Peng Anfa, and Han Xiaojun, Guangzhou branch director of Hantang Securities, Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday.

Prosecutors alleged Chen embezzled 1.2 billion yuan, took bribes totaling 53.7 million yuan and stole company funds of 12.3 million yuan from 2001 to 2005 through misconduct in a collective asset management business with Hantang Securities.

Chen, 59, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court.

About 300 million yuan of the embezzled funds were associated with former vice-general manager Peng. The fund, which was illegally given to Han on Peng's permission, was not been returned to China Southern Airlines Group, prosecutors said.

Peng was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the court.

Hantang Securities and its Guangzhou branch director Han Xiaojun were accused of taking bribes. The company is required to pay a fine of 500,000 yuan, and Han was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

Defendants Chen, Peng and Han appealed against the court's decision, while Hantang Securities said it would consider whether it should appeal.

The group is the parent of Guangzhou's New York-listed China Southern Airlines. The company is also listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

According to the charges, Chen, Peng and the group's general manager conspired in August 2001 to embezzle the group's bank loans to invest in asset management businesses with fixed returns in the name of the group company, in order to solve the group's financial difficulties.

Chen was allegedly authorized by the general manager to borrow from the bank and signed agreements with securities firms on the investments, while Peng helped oversee the process, prosecutors said.

Chen allegedly allocated more than 1.6 billion yuan for the transactions at Hantang Securities between August 2001 and April 2003.