Advanced Search

Flies and Tigers | 抓蝇打虎

200m yuan in bribes was too hot to handle
煤炭司副司长魏鹏远家中搜出两亿现金

By Li Qian | November 1, 2014, Saturday | Print Edition

INVESTIGATORS who found more than 200 million yuan (US$32.7 million) at the home of a former energy official said there was so much cash that four of their counting machines overheated.

Prosecutors said it was the largest amount of bribes in cash they had uncovered since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.

If it was all in 100 yuan notes, it would make a pile some 230 meters high, almost a third of the height of the new Shanghai Tower, China’s tallest building.

The cash “belonged” to Wei Pengyuan, former deputy director of the National Energy Administration’s coal bureau and one of 11 officials under the management of the National Development and Reform Commission to be investigated for corruption this year. The energy administration is one of the departments under the commission.

Five of the officials are from the energy sector, including Xu Yongsheng, 48, the youngest deputy director of the energy administration.

Six are said to be implicated in cases involving more than 10 million yuan each.

In the first nine months of the year, 35,633 people suspected of taking bribes and siphoning off state funds have been investigated, a 5.6 percent rise on last year’s figure, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate told a news conference yesterday.

They were involved in 27,235 cases, nearly 85 percent of which related to bribes of more than 50,000 yuan and the embezzlement of more than 10,000 yuan.

So far, 21,652 people have been charged and 13,437 convicted.

The increase in the number of cases highlighted a lack of supervision and transparency, the procuratorate said.

China has been intensifying its crackdown on corrupt officials this year, and on July 22 launched operation “Fox Hunt” aimed at officials who flee abroad.

Thanks to closer cooperation with police forces in other countries and regions, 502 such fugitives were caught beween January and September.

Among the officials brought to justice this year was Li Ning, said to have transferred nearly 20 million yuan of research funds to a company he controlled.

He became China’s youngest engineering academician in 2008 at the age of 46.

Flies and Tigers

All Flies and Tigers Articles



 

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

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend