A SHENZHEN-BASED business owner stood trial at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Wednesday for offering bribes to win the bid of a Metro project, the Shenzhen Evening News reported Thursday.

    The defendant, surnamed Fang, is the legal representative and chairman of an electromechanical company in Shenzhen. He was convicted of offering bribes and sentenced to 18 months in prison by Longgang District People’s Court.

    His company was ordered to pay a penalty of 100,000 yuan (US$14,925) and he was required to pay 10,000 yuan. However, Fang refused to accept the ruling and appealed to a higher court.

    According to the court, Fang had paid Yang, an employee at the investment company that was the contractor for Metro Line 3, a total of 320,000 yuan and gave him a 2,000-yuan gift card, to help his company win the bid of a noise control project for Metro Line 3.

    Fang had also paid 550,000 yuan to Ye, the person in charge of the Metro line’s environment control system, apart from offering 450,000 yuan to Wu, an engineer of the Metro line’s environment control project.

    Fang’s defense attorney said Yang approached Fang in 2007, saying that he could help Fang’s company win the bid and asked Fang for kickbacks. “It was Yang who called Fang and asked for money. Fang had provided the audio records of their conversations to the investigators,” the attorney said.

    According to the attorney, Fang was forced to pay Yang money so that Yang wouldn’t cause any problems for his company in their effort to win the bid, which means Fang’s behavior should not be viewed as offering bribes. But the prosecutors said most of the evidence provided by Fang’s defense attorney are photocopies, which are hard to be verified.

    The hearing of the case continues. (Zhang Yang)