Ex-retail magnate gets 18 years for graft
Print Edition
A FORMER retail magnate once dubbed “the business godfather of Shanghai” has been jailed for 18 years for bribery and embezzlement totaling almost 200 million yuan (US$31.6 million).
Wang Zongnan was former general manager of the Shanghai Friendship (Group) Co, operator of a chain of department stores in China, and chairman of its subsidiary Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co.
Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said that 1 million yuan has been confiscated from Wang and that all his illegal earnings will be recovered.
The court said that Wang, 59, had taken bribes of 2.7 million yuan and conspired with others to embezzle 195 million yuan from Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co and subsidiaries between 2001 and 2006.
It said that Wang, together with Lianhua general manager Liang Wei, company director Zhang Zengyong, chief financial officer Xu Lingling and human resources director Dao Shurong, had sought personal benefit by embezzling more than 195 million yuan to establish two companies and fund their business operations.
Wang gained more than 1.2 million yuan, while the four others made sums ranging from 10.6 million yuan to nearly 16.3 million yuan, the court said
The other four defendants received jail terms ranging from eight to 12 years yesterday.
Wang also abused his positions to seek benefits for Shanghai Fosun High Technology (Group) Co, in transferring shares of Lianhua and subsidiaries, after the tech company established the Shanghai Friendship holding company in 2000 with the Friendship (Group) Co, said the court.
In 2003, Wang asked Guo Guangchang, chairman of Fosun Group and said to be the wealthiest businessman in Shanghai, to provide discounts for his parents to buy two villas developed in Songjiang District by a real estate company owned by Fosun, it said.
Guo agreed and Wang’s parents spent 2.08 million yuan on the villas at Laiting Road S. in Songjiang District — 2.69 million yuan cheaper than their market values.
The court said that these discounts were bribes.
In 2010 and 2013, the villas were sold of 14.8 million yuan.
Guo was not charged in connection with this case.
Shanghai lawyer Jiang Tao said that whether Guo will face charges depends on if there is evidence he had sought illegal benefits through offering the villas at a discount.
In a statement released after the verdict, Fosun said that the company never sought illegal benefits during its collaboration in Shanghai Friendship, and neither had it accepted benefits offered by Wang.
It added that the discount on the villas was within the range offered by developers in 2003, as the housing market was extremely weak at the time.
A well-known figure in the city business world, once known as the “business godfather of Shanghai,” Wang became chairman of Lianhua Supermarket in 1995 and then chairman of Shanghai Friendship in 2003.
In 2006, he joined Bright Food Group Co as chairman, resigning in late 2013 for health reasons.
Wang was detained in July 2014 and arrested a month later. He was charged in October and stood trial last December.
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