BEIJING, Sept 8 : A Chinese Bank Manager has been ron-demned to death for taking some 3.50,000 Dollars in bribes keeping three mistresses and going to Hong King every weekened to phi- I lander, according to a newspaper seen here Saturday, reports AFP

Gao Sen Xian ng, 50, was sentenced to death Tuesday by the intermediate people's court in Shenzhen, a special economic zone tn southern China bordering Hong Kong, the zone's official daily reported-.

He told the court he would appeal the sentence, the newspaper said.

Gao was Shenzhen Branch Manager of the China International Trust and Investment Corp (CITIC), industrial bank for two years until July last year.

During his tenure, he took bribes worth 3,45,000 Dollars in Hong Kong. Chinese and US currencies in exchange for approving 52 loans for 14 companies in the zone, the newspaper said

In a lengthy report on the case the newspaper said Gao used his ill- gotten wealth to keep three mistresses within a year, renting or buying houses for them fitted with modern home appliances and deluxe furniture

He paid one of the women 2.30,000 Yuan (43,000 Dollars) tn hush money when she threatened to report him, the report said.

The case was an especially big corruption one tn China's commercial circles, the news paper said adding that he had a very bad Influence.'

To support his kind of enjoyment he became corrupt and began to take chances, his nerve became bigger and bigger and his crimes grew worse and worse until he became tried in corruption, the newspaper said

It explained that Gao was born to a poor peasant family and said he was an intellectual nurtured by the party and state who went lo university on a state scholarship.

The newspaper presented him as an example of a strayed Communist official who de fended socialist values in name