BEIJING - The Ministry of Education (MOE) has made public its handling of an exam paper leakage scandal, a ministry official said Saturday.

The MOE launched investigations soon after the leakage of exam paper during the national postgraduate exam in January, 2012. It disclosed investigation results in May and transferred the results to police, the official said.

Investigations found that Zhou Wensheng, an official with Xiangtan Education Examinations Authority, stole the postgraduate exam papers from a confidential room in Xiangtan City in central China's Hunan Province and traded them for profit.

The ministry also made public on February 27 the penalties handed out to the involved suspects in the first instance trial.

Zhou Wensheng was sentenced to six years in prison, and his accomplices were handed out imprisonment sentences from nine months to five years, according to the ministry.

They were sentenced on charge of illegally obtaining state secrets.