Ex-senior officials found guilty of graft
Zhou Chunyu, former vicegovernor of Anhui province, stood trial in Shandong province on charges of bribery, abusing power, concealing foreign deposits and insider trading, according to the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday.
Zhou, 50, pleaded guilty during the hearing and showed remorse for his illegal practices. The court verdict will be released later.
According to the indictment by prosecutors, he took advantage of his position to gain benefits for others in enterprise acquisition and bidding for projects, then accepted bribes valued at 13.6 million yuan ($1.96 million) either paid in cash or property from 1996 to 2017.
During those two decades, he mainly served as deputy director of the Anhui provincial finance department; mayor of Maanshan; mayor and Party chief of Bengbu; and vice-governor of Anhui.
Prosecutors said that when he was serving as mayor in Bengbu in Anhui, he violated the State land management rule and privately decided to return land-transfer fees to relevant enterprises, causing economic losses to the State of 665 million yuan ($95.5 million).
When he served as Party chief in Bengbu, he violated the rules and transferred a total of $4.12 million in illicit assets to his foreign accounts and didn’t report those to the Party, the prosecutors said.
Moreover, as an insider with confidential information about stock trades, he purchased 270 million yuan in stocks and illegally earned 350 million yuan.
In April 2017, the anti-graft watchdog launched an investigation of Zhou for “serious violations of Party discipline”. In July last year, he was expelled from the Party and removed from public office.
In a separate development, Chen Xu, former chief prosecutor of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate, was convicted on Thursday of taking bribes amounting to more than 70 million yuan and sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
In addition, he was deprived of his political rights for life and his ill-gotten gains were confiscated. The money will be handed over to the State treasury, according to Nanning city Intermediate People’s Court.
The court said Chen made use of his position to help others handle cases, bid for projects and promote civil servants, then accepted huge bribes in return that were valued at 74.2 million yuan from 2003 to 2014.
From 2003 to 2014, he mainly served as deputy secretarygeneral of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and chief prosecutor of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate.
“During the court hearing, we notified the suspect of his legal rights and listened carefully to the lawyer’s defense statements to protect his legitimate rights,” a statement released by the court said.
In another development, Xing Yun, 66, former vicechairman of the Inner Mongolia People’s Congress, was under investigation for suspected severe violation of Party discipline and laws, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced on Thursday.