Liu Lihua, 52, admitted to having misappropriated the fund for private use when he was president of the state-owned Beijing Dragon Spring Hotel and Beijing Quanxing Economic Development Co Ltd between 1992 and 2000.

Liu, also head of the state-owned Western Beijing Tourism Development Co Ltd, embezzled at least 10 million yuan of the hotel's money to finance a private hotel management firm.

The hotel's financial controller said he was kept in the dark over the swindle. "He (Liu) was the boss and didn't need to inform me where the money had gone," the man surnamed Pang was quoted as saying by the Beijing Morning Post.

Liu squandered another 10 million yuan to register a shell company and get five of his friends permanent residence rights in Beijing.

Liu also took 180,000 yuan from public coffers to help his "god-daughter," a former employee at the Beijing Dragon Spring Hotel, out of financial difficulties.

He took an additional 130,000 yuan to cover his son's medical expenses and "borrowed" 500,000 yuan to buy a villa in Zhuhai city, in south China's Guangdong Province.

In court, Liu denied any wrongdoing. "I've done so much for these companies. Is it wrong for me to use public money when my son is sick or I need to buy a house?"

When he heard he was being investigated at the end of 2004, Liu shredded all the account books and sold them as waste paper.

Liu was arrested in January and sentenced to 20 years in jail at his first trial on December 11.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court also fined him 20,000 yuan.