LIANG YONG, former director with Futian District Public Works Bureau, was recently sentenced to four years in jail for taking 4.4 million yuan (US$637,681) and HK$700,000 (US$89,247) in bribes.

According to the prosecutors, during his tenure as director of the Futian District Construction Affairs Office between 2011 and 2012, Liang abused his power to illegally approve project fund payouts, project cost settlements, and project tendering and bidding in exchange for bribes.

In September 2012, a manager with an engineering company surnamed Lin gave a paper box containing 2 million yuan in cash to Liang at a shopping mall in Luohu District, in hopes of getting fund payments before the projects were completed. Liang used the money to purchase property.

In September 2012, a manager with another property development company surnamed Fan promised to give Liang 2 million yuan for his approval of his projects’ funding. Liang again used the money to purchase property. At the end of 2015, after Fan was investigated, Liang returned the money to Fan’s family, according to the prosecutors.

Liang also took cash bribes from other project managers in exchange for giving out projects and offering help in project biddings.

In July 2017, Liang was sentenced to 10 years in jail by Yantian District Court. Liang pleaded guilty, but insisted that he had borrowed the money from Lin and Fan, and had not taken bribes from them. Liang appealed to Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, which ordered the Yantian court provide a retrial.

The Yantian court finally confirmed that the 4 million yuan Liang had taken from Lin and Fan were bribes.

Liang’s sentence was reduced to four years considering his corruption were committed before Aug. 29, 2015, when the new amendments designating harsher punishments for bribery went into effect. The court also took into consideration that Liang had confessed to his crimes voluntarily and returned all his illicit gains.

(Han Ximin)