Huang Guangyu, once China's richest man and former chairman of home appliance giant Gome Group, was sentenced on Tuesday to 14 years in jail for illegal business dealings, insider trading and corporate bribery.

He was also ordered to pay a fine of 600 million yuan (US$88 million) and 200 million yuan of his assets will be confiscated, according to a ruling by the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

The court agreed with the procuratorate's charges that Huang had illegally traded in foreign exchange, was involved in insider trading of Shenzhen-listed Beijing Centergate Technologies' stock, and bribed five officials with 4.56 million yuan.

Du Juan, Huang's wife, was sentenced to three-and-half years for insider trading and fined 200 million yuan.

Xu Zhongmin, former chairman of Beijing Centergate, who was convicted of insider trading and corporate bribery, was sentenced to three years and fined 100 million yuan.

The three stood trial on April 22, and the verdict was read out at about 10:30 am on Tuesday. The sentencing was closed to the public and media.

Yang Zhaodong, one of Huang's defense lawyers, told reporters soon after the verdict that Huang was "calm" upon hearing the sentence, but his family, including his mother and two sisters, turned very emotional.

Yang said Huang will meet with his lawyers to decide on filing an appeal.

"Fourteen years is more than what we expected, and I think it's a little too heavy," Yang said.