DING SHUMIAO, a Shanxi businesswoman accused of colluding with former railway minister Liu Zhijun on more than 180 billion yuan (US$29 billion) worth of projects, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined 2.5 billion yuan, a Beijing court said yesterday.

    Ding was found guilty of bribery and illegal business activities, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said. Ding’s personal assets of 20 million yuan will be confiscated.

    The 58-year-old tycoon built up a network of connections with rail officials, steering bids for 57 projects worth about 186 billion yuan to 23 companies between 2007 and 2010, prosecutors said in her trial in September last year. She took over 2 billion yuan in middleman fees through these transactions.

    Portrayed as a key financier behind the fallen railway minister Liu, Ding was accused of making nearly 4 billion yuan in profits from contracts for the high-speed railway network through Liu’s help, prosecutors said in Liu’s trial in June last year.(SD-Agencies)

    About 44 million yuan of the bribes was intended for a scheme to get one of Liu’s colleagues out of jail, and the rest was for his plan for an ally to take over his minister role when he won promotion, court documents said. Both schemes never came to fruition.

    Liu was given a death sentence, with a two-year reprieve, for bribery and abuse of power in July last year.

    Ding also offered bribes totalling more than 40 million yuan to Fan Zengyu, a former official with the State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development on 38 occasions between 2009 and 2010. This included 8.8 million yuan that Fan has asked for to buy an apartment, the court said.

    Fan stood trial on corruption and fraud charges in January, state media reported. The verdict is not out yet.

    (SD-Agencies)