A former senior official with the State Food and Drug Administration was sentenced in Beijing to spend 17 years in prison, the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

Zhang Jingli, 56, former deputy director of the administration, took advantage of his authority to obtain about 1.17 million yuan ($183,100) from companies. He also instigated Liao Hongbing, the owner of Haobo Zhongtian Technology Ltd, and Yang Jun and Pan Jingping, the general manager and vice-general manager of Beijing Langtian Investment Co Ltd, to make false accusations against the State Food And Drug Administration's director by sending more than 1,300 letters to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China. And he, with the help of Liao, illegally printed and sold a book he had wrote, making more than 16 million yuan from it.

The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court found Zhang guilty of the crimes of bribery, running an illegal business and making false accusations.

Liao, for his part, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison and Yang and Pan to 1 year and 8 months in prison.