A former China Communist Youth League official in northwest China was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in jail for graft and accepting bribes.

Cao Gang, 37, was sentenced at the Intermediate People's Court of Yinchuan City, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Cao was also fined 110,000 yuan (16,000 U.S.dollars) and had all his illegal gains confiscated, said a spokesman for the court.

He was convicted of embezzling 480,000 yuan of public funds with a colleague and taking 347,200 yuan in bribes while serving as deputy secretary and secretary of the regional committee of the China Communist Youth League from 2005 to 2008, said the spokesman.

Cao and colleague Yao Ping was found to have asked for 480,000 yuan in kickbacks from two schools of Ningxia after they helped the schools win a contract for business training program for young people, which received 1.5 million yuan in funding from the league, said the spokesman.

Cao was also accused of taking 258,000 yuan in cash, shopping cards totaling 52,500 yuan and other property worth 36,700 yuan, he said.

Cao was detained in August 2009 and stood trial in March.