Cover-up claims 3 years after theft
Print Edition
SEVERAL officials and police officers, including a deputy provincial Party chief, are being investigated almost three years after a burglary at the home of the head of China’s largest coking coal producer.
Jin Daoming, deputy Party chief of north China’s Shanxi Province, is alleged to have covered up the corruption of Bai Peizhong, former chairman of the state-owned Shanxi Coking Coal Group, after burglars stole 50 million yuan (US$8.14 million) worth of foreign cash, gold bars, expensive watches and diamonds from his home, Caijing Magazine reported at the weekend.
The former director and deputy director of the Taiyuan Public Security Bureau were taken in for questioning by discipline authorities in February for allegedly concealing the actual amount of money stolen after being bribed by Bai, the report said.
Two guards at Bai’s community broke into Bai’s home when his wife was at home alone in November 2011. At their trial, Xinhua news agency reported, they said they believed Bai dare not call the police because the stolen items were bribes. But Bai’s wife reported the theft and the guards were soon caught.
But she claimed only 3 million yuan had been taken, although police found over 50 million yuan worth of items in the guards’ possession.
They received death sentences, suspended for two years, in December 2012.
However, the Intermediate People’s Court of Jinzhong City said in sentencing that the stolen items were worth just 10.78 million yuan, or a fifth of the actual amount, Xinhua reported.
And the Party discipline commission of Shanxi Province claimed only 840,000 yuan of that had breached the rules, while the rest was legal income.
Bai was sacked but only received a light punishment — to be “monitored by the Party for a year.”
The magazine said Jin had manipulated the court and had told Bai to reduce the amount stolen to avoid being severely punished. In return, Bai was said to have bribed Jin with money and paintings worth millions that Bai bought with public funds.
The light sentence angered many former senior Shanxi officials and they reached out to the central government last year, alleging a cover-up.
The central government announced an investigation into Jin in February and began investigating other officials and police officers involved in the case in April.
Su Hao, former director of the police bureau of Taiyuan City, and his successor Li Yali are being questioned, as are Dai Laiwei, deputy police bureau director, and Li Daqi, the investigation team leader with the Taiyuan bureau responsible for Bai’s case.
Three other police officers — Bai’s brother and two brothers of Bai’s wife — are also being investigated.
Hu Jianwei, chairman of an international trading company under the Shanxi Coking Coal Group, and Yao Haiping, general manager with Jingneng Group, another coal company, were also taken away for questioning earlier this year, the magazine said.
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