China Corruption Blotter (September 10, 2012)

Deputy Director of Hunan Province Department of Transportation Li Xiaoxi was placed under investigation by the provincial Committee for Discipline Inspection for serious disciplinary violations. Li is the seventh senior official of the Hunan transportation department to be removed for disciplinary problems in recent years. http://news.hexun.com/2012-08-31/145331338.html

A sub-committee Party branch secretary of the working committee of Economic and Technological Development Zone located in Huaibei City (Anhui Province) was sentenced to 11 years and six months in jail for embezzling  $124,133 in acquisition and relocation compensation. Identified only by her surname, Duan made numerous false claims under the name of various villagers. She was given a lighter sentence because her son returned $180,699 to the authorities following her arrest. http://www.gtzyb.com/yaowen/20120829_18753.html

The deputy chief of the Dongguan City Humen Branch police station was arrested and placed under investigation for accepting bribes from gambling dens in exchange for “protection.” Identified only as Deng, the former deputy chief was said to have accepted $56,549 from the illicit networks from January to September of 2011. http://news.hebei.com.cn/system/2012/08/30/012052103.shtml

On August 24, the regional high court rejected former Inner Mongolia deputy secretary-general Bai Zhiming’s appeal of his suspended death sentence. Bai was said to have accepted bribes of more than 13 million yuan (US $2.04 million), embezzled $769,692, and was unable to explain the source of another $942,480 in assets. http://fanfu.people.com.cn/GB/n/2012/0831/c64371-18884296.html

The Guangzhou police announced the arrest of 16 village officials of the 18 implicated in a group corruption case, with the remaining two now on the run. The group, from Tangxi Village of Guangzhou’s Baiyun District (Guangdong Province), were said to have solicited bribes totaling $1.02 million from property developers during the bidding and construction of residential and commercial projects within the village, and even openly divided the money in hard cash over dinner. http://dailynews.sina.com/gb/chn/chnlocal/phoenixtv/20120830/17043726767.html

Unnamed insiders told reporters that Party authorities had started investigating insider-trading allegations involving state-owned firm China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and a trading company controlled by shipping tycoon Zhang Zhirong (chairman of China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings) in the purchase of Canadian oil firm Nexen. In July, the SEC accused traders of reaping illicit profits of more than $13 million by purchasing Nexen shares just before CNOOC agreed to acquire Nexen for $15.1 billion. http://www.cqcb.com/cbnews/gngjnews/2012-09-04/1512748.html

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Chua Guan Cheong is a senior journalist with ethiXbase and the China Compliance Digest.

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