A former general manager of an investment firm in Beijing was recently sentenced to five and half years in prison for acquiring and leaking state secrets.

Wu Zhiwen released figures on the national urban fixed-assets investment growth index, the GDP and consumer price index before they were made public.

Wu, 36, obtained 19 secret economic figures from Wu Chaoming, Wu Zhiwen's classmate at Tianjin-based Nankai University in 2010. Wu Chaoming was a senior researcher with the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

Wu Zhiwen forwarded the secret figures to 13 people, eight of whom were his classmates at Nankai, according to a local court.

Wu Chaoming received a six-year prison term for leaking 25 state secret figures.

Six people were suspected of leaking State economic figures in October. Suspects included Wu Chaoming, four professionals in the securities industry, and a senior official with the National Bureau of Statistics.