A PROCUREMENT official was sentenced to 10 years in jail for taking bribes by Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Monday, the Daily Sunshine reported.

    Li Zihua, former deputy director of Shenzhen Municipal Procurement Center, was convicted of accepting 375,000 yuan (US$60,446) and HK$100,000 yuan (US$12,900) in cash bribes, plus goods worth 52,000 yuan, while he was in office.

    Car dealers were the main group of people who bribed Li in order to secure government procurement contracts for public vehicles. Toyota and Honda automobiles were frequently nominated on procurement lists.

    In 2008, Li received a massage chair worth 20,000 yuan from a distributor of Fuji Xerox. In return for the gift, Li helped the distributor win government bids on a printer and copy machine procurement project. Li’s wife and son also received a free sightseeing trip to Japan from the distributor in 2011.

    In 2007, Li received wooden flooring worth 32,000 yuan from a Shenzhen company after the company learned that Li’s two apartments were being refurbished. He also received 10,000 yuan in cash from the company in exchange for qualifying the company’s computer for government procurement.

    Li enjoyed drinking and those bribing him would frequently make use of dining occasions to give him fine wine along with cash.

    During the first trial, the court ruled that Li had committed corruption and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, judging that Li had shown remorse by reportedly returning all the ill-gotten money. But Li lodged an appeal, pleading for a lighter punishment, claiming he had turned himself in.

    A second trial by Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court upheld the initial ruling after it verified that Li didn’t deserve any more leniency.

    (Anna Zhao)

    Man given 12 years for embezzlement

    THE former general manager of a Shenzhen subsidiary of State-owned Benxi Steel Group was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined 300,000 yuan (US$48,353) for embezzlement, the Daily Sunshine reported.

    The man, surnamed Wang, was found guilty of embezzling 1.01 million yuan from his company’s warehouse rental proceeds. He reportedly took advantage of his position as general manager of Shenzhen Bengang Commerce, a subsidiary of Benxi Steel Group, to embezzle the warehouse’s rental proceeds.

    Wang was reported for malpractice in 2008 by an anonymous source, but his crime was not verified by the procuratorate due to a lack of evidence.

    In 2013, Nanshan District People’s Procuratorate suspected Wang of embezzling public funds from land leasing projects and placed him under investigation. Meanwhile, the procuratorate in Benxi, Liaoning Province, began to investigate him for embezzlement.

    (Anna Zhao)