The story appears on

Page A2

January 28, 2011

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeNation

Official's lover jailed over bribes

A FORMER television presenter, and mistress of a disgraced former top political advisor in south China's Guangdong Province, was jailed for three years yesterday for taking 100,000 yuan (US$15,193) in bribes.

Li Yong, 35, a former anchorwoman on Guangdong Television for some of China's most popular events, including the launch of China's manned space vessel, was sentenced at Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.

In 2003, Li became a mistress of Chen Shaoji, 65, former police chief of Guangdong and chairman of the Guangdong provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Chen was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve last July for accepting 30 million yuan in bribes. Authorities also seized his assets.

He was accused of using his positions to benefit others from 1992 to 2009 in return for the bribes.

Li persuaded Chen to buy her a Land Rover to replace her Mercedes-Benz in early 2008. Chen asked a Hong Kong businessman, surnamed Yang, who had won a government project with Chen's help, for the car, and Yang gave him the car as a gift, the court heard.

Li transferred ownership of the car, worth 1.36 million yuan, to her father in a bid to avoid an investigation.

The car and the money involved in Li's case had been confiscated, the court heard.

Li was convicted of taking bribes, taking advantage of Chen's position and demanding a vehicle from others.

She was detained at the Capital International Airport in Beijing when boarding a flight using a foreign passport in April 2009.

Li was known to have strong connections with powerful figures in Guangdong, and her affair with Chen reportedly was an open secret.

Her former colleagues described Li as having great wealth "obviously not consistent with her income," Beijing-based Caijing Magazine reported.

The downfall of corrupt officials in China was often triggered by exposure of their mistresses. At an anti-corruption meeting in 2008, Wang Huayuan, former head of Zhejiang Province's CPC Discipline Inspection Commission and a former colleague of Chen, said: "Half of China's corrupt officials have mistresses."

Wang, 64, was to prove these words true when it was revealed that he, too, had a mistress and had a son with her. Wang was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for taking bribes last September.

Similarly, Huang Yao, 62, known as a "sugar daddy" who was involved in affairs with 13 "god daughters," some of whom were his subordinates, received the same sentence last December, again for taking bribes. He was former deputy secretary of the Party's Guizhou committee and chairman of the provincial advisory body.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend