Cartoon by Liang Qiu

A former dean of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has been sentenced to ten years for corruption and embezzlement, the Beijing News reported Monday.

Meng Jiangtao, who was the dean of the school of mathematics and system science, was jailed for fraudulently embezzling 2.37 million yuan and falsely taking 270,000 yuan ($43,970) for a research fund.

In October 2011, it was discovered a number of expense claims had been falsified with the signatures of the school head and vice president. A month earlier the school noticed a card held by Meng for a research fund was cleaned out.

When questioned by the school head, Meng admitted the offences and confessed he had forged the signatures.

Meng embezzled 2.37 million yuan by forging signatures, meeting expenditures or other items between December 2010 and September 2011. Meng also falsely claimed for a research fund of 270,000 yuan.

Meng said he just intended to borrow the money but could not pay it back.

Haidian district is where many universities and colleges are located in Beijing. The local procuratorate has dealt with 17 cases involving 21 people for embezzlement of research funds since 2003.

A local procurator said university corruption happened because of irresponsible management, personal ethical problems and imperfect research fund management systems.