4 on trial for home-draw scam
By Jane Chen |
March 27, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FOUR people are on trial for allegedly organizing a fraudulent scheme in a draw for government-backed cheap homes in a central China city.
Wang Pin, 31, a factory worker and the scheme's planner; Huang Zheng, 27, a programmer and Wang's cousin; and Liu Shengjun, 25, and Chen Tiancheng, both temporary workers with Wuhan State Land and Housing Measurement Center, are accused of taking 760,000 yuan (US$111,323) for helping ineligible applicants cheat in the draw, yesterday's China National Radio reported.
They stood trial yesterday in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, with another nine people involved in the scheme.
Wang asked Huang to write a draw program early last year and then had Liu and Chen implant the cheating program to the government's computer system.
They collected 760,000 yuan to help 73 clients to join the draw on June 12. All were among the 124 finalists out of the 5,141 applicants who were supposed to be qualified low-income families. Six had consecutive application numbers, which aroused wide public suspicion and sparked a government investigation.
Suspicions grew when it was found that the six winners had their addresses moved to Qiaokou District from other areas of the city just days ahead of the draw, which, according to insiders, could have been an attempt to conceal their real addresses as well as their ownership of existing homes -- which would have disqualified them from getting a cheap home.
A government investigation discovered that officials in the police, residence management departments and the neighborhood committee had been involved in the scandal. Some had conspired with local housing brokers to fake the qualification documents for some applicants.
Five officials, including Zhu Zhiqiang, vice director of the Wuhan State Land and Housing Administrative Bureau, have been sacked.
Zhang Xiaobo, an official with Qiaokou District Housing Administrative Bureau, has been sentenced to two and a half years with a probation of three years for issuing ineligible residents with qualification certificates, becoming the first government worker sentenced to jail for involvement in the fraud scheme.
The center has disqualified the six from benefiting from the cheap homes scheme. But it is unknown whether the rest of the 67 cheating applicants were punished.
Wang Pin, 31, a factory worker and the scheme's planner; Huang Zheng, 27, a programmer and Wang's cousin; and Liu Shengjun, 25, and Chen Tiancheng, both temporary workers with Wuhan State Land and Housing Measurement Center, are accused of taking 760,000 yuan (US$111,323) for helping ineligible applicants cheat in the draw, yesterday's China National Radio reported.
They stood trial yesterday in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, with another nine people involved in the scheme.
Wang asked Huang to write a draw program early last year and then had Liu and Chen implant the cheating program to the government's computer system.
They collected 760,000 yuan to help 73 clients to join the draw on June 12. All were among the 124 finalists out of the 5,141 applicants who were supposed to be qualified low-income families. Six had consecutive application numbers, which aroused wide public suspicion and sparked a government investigation.
Suspicions grew when it was found that the six winners had their addresses moved to Qiaokou District from other areas of the city just days ahead of the draw, which, according to insiders, could have been an attempt to conceal their real addresses as well as their ownership of existing homes -- which would have disqualified them from getting a cheap home.
A government investigation discovered that officials in the police, residence management departments and the neighborhood committee had been involved in the scandal. Some had conspired with local housing brokers to fake the qualification documents for some applicants.
Five officials, including Zhu Zhiqiang, vice director of the Wuhan State Land and Housing Administrative Bureau, have been sacked.
Zhang Xiaobo, an official with Qiaokou District Housing Administrative Bureau, has been sentenced to two and a half years with a probation of three years for issuing ineligible residents with qualification certificates, becoming the first government worker sentenced to jail for involvement in the fraud scheme.
The center has disqualified the six from benefiting from the cheap homes scheme. But it is unknown whether the rest of the 67 cheating applicants were punished.
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