Party investigates judge's mining shares

By Jane Chen | May 25, 2010, Tuesday |

Online Edition

A JUDGE'S legal victory to win 11 million yuan (US$1.61 million) in dividends from a mine owner has led to a disciplinary investigation into the judge's own affairs.

The Party committee of Shenmu County in Shaanxi Province's Yulin City is investigating how Zhang Jifeng, 46, a judge with Shenmu People's Court, obtained the shares in the mine and whether it is against the law, today's Chinese Business View newspaper reported.

Yulin Party committee demanded the investigation after a media report of Zhang's lawsuit against a mine owner surnamed Chen over the unpaid dividends for his shares in the mine.

Zhang told Hengshan County People's Court that he sold his apartment for 430,000 yuan and raised other money from his friends to invest a total of 1.8 million yuan in Chen's mine in 2005, accounting for 10 percent of the mine's total investment.

He received 6.6 million yuan as dividends in the following two years but little later.

He didn't learn it until 2008 that Chen had sold two-thirds of the mine's shares to two new investors in 2007.

The new investors offered 100 percent dividends to the investors in 2007 and 2008 but only 3 million yuan to Zhang, the report said.

Zhang then asked Chen to pay back 11 million yuan of the unpaid dividends for the two years, valuing his 10 percent share at 50 million yuan.

The Hengshan court supported Zhang's lawsuit in the first trial and ordered Chen to pay the money back back. But Chen appealed to the Yulin Intermediate People's Court alleging that Zhang, as a government worker, was illegally investing in mines.

Chinese law bans government workers or judges from investing in mines. Zhang said he knew it was illegal but he was forced to file the lawsuit because most of his investment money was from friends and he felt obliged to win back their profits.

"I'm waiting for the result of the second trial as well as the punishment from the disciplinary authority," he told Chinese Business View.

Nation

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Party investigates judge's mining shares

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