A former high-ranking official in China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes in Beijing, a local court said Thursday.

Former senior inspector Guo Jingyi, 44, was alleged to have accepted bribes valued at about 8.44 million yuan (US$1.24 million), a written verdict issued by the Beijing Municipal No.2 Intermediate People's Court said.

The verdict also included the confiscation of all of Guo's personal property and lifetime deprivation of his political rights.

Guo entered the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the predecessor to the Ministry of Commerce, in 1986 after graduating from Peking University's law school.

Guo was later appointed deputy head of the ministry's treaty and law department. He also served as deputy director of the Office of Anti-Monopoly Investigations.

Guo was detained by police in October 2008 while an MOC inspector.

The court found Guo took advantage of his post and took 3.34 million yuan in bribes from companies and lawyers between 1998 and 2007.

In return, he helped companies go public and obtain administrative approval for changes in stocks' rights and mergers and acquisitions by foreign companies.

Guo also took illegal gains valued at 5.1 million yuan to help a Beijing company set up a foreign-funded firm and help another company pass an investigation into its illegal use foreign exchange, along with two other former senior officials at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.