Suspended death sentence for former railway head
Print Edition
A FORMER senior railway official in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was handed a suspended death sentence at the end of last month for taking 130 million yuan (US$21.49 million) in bribes within two years.
However, Ma Junfei, former deputy head of the railways bureau in the region’s capital Hohhot, didn’t used much of the money. His two houses, one in Hohhot and one in Beijing, were found filled with bank notes and valuable goods, China Business News reported.
Investigators found approximately US$20 million in cash in five different currencies and 43.4 kilograms of gold, the newspaper reported.
The Hengshui City Intermediate People’s Court in Hebei Province said Ma received bribes up to 75 million yuan and that he couldn’t recall how he got another 63 million yuan in cash and goods.
Ma took the post in August 2009. In 22 months before he was placed under investigation, he took 269 bribes, meaning he averaged a bribe every two days or nearly 10,000 yuan every hour, the newspaper reported.
Ma once told investigators he took bribes because he didn’t want to be alienated by his fellows and always felt such huge wealth was like a time bomb. He said he felt relieved when he came under the spotlight in June 2011, the newspaper reported.
An anonymous insider told the newspaper that Ma received a two-year suspended death sentence because he didn’t spend much of the bribe money.
Ma accepted his first bribe in September 2009, the newspaper reported.
Zhao Yongming, vice manager of the Huitong Coal Operating Company with Inner Mongolia Huineng Group, promised to give Ma US$50,000 every month. In return, Ma helped Zhao get more railway project contracts.
The now defunct Railways Ministry was both a policy-maker and service provider. It has long been criticized for bureaucracy, corruption and poor service.
Following the downfall of several senior officials, the central government dismantled the ministry in March 2013.
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