Chinese tycoon, Huang Guangyu, was sentenced to 14 years prison for bribing and insider trading, Tuesday (5/18). Huang is the founder of Gome Electronics, China’s biggest appliance retailer. Latest estimation put him at US$6.3 billion. In 2008, he was ranked No. 1 in a list of China’s wealthiest businesspeople by Rupert Hoogewerf, a researcher in Shanghai.

Huang was accused of paying 4.6 million yuan ($675,000) in bribes, as well as insider trading to the sum of 1.4 billion yuan. Previous charges include bribes to get Gome’s stock market listed in Hong Kong.

Huang’s verdict is the latest in the string of wealthy entrepreneurs seeing themselves sent to prison. It is clear that Beijing is sending strict messages to crooked businessmen who are taking advantages of loopholes in the nation’s business regulations.

Bribery, tax evasion and other financial abuses are common in China and as of last year, nearly 30 billionaires listed (or had been listed) as China’s wealthiest people were in jail or awaiting investigative results, trial or verdict. These accusations are often linked to officials in the Communist Party and in Huang’s case, a former deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security’s economic crime division, Xiang Huaizhu, was sent to trial in March although no verdict has been reached yet.

Latest development leads to new rules concerning the prosecution standards of insider trading and the leaking of information. China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security rules Tuesday that insiders trading securities will be prosecuted if the volume of tradings accumulated to more than 500,000 yuan ($73,000). Future trading risks government suits should the appropriation of margin surpass 300,000 yuan in insider trading.