A subsidiary of the leading Chinese consumer electronics producer TCL Corporation allegedly bribed a government official in Guangdong province in exchange for government subsidies.
The allegation was aired during the corruption trial of Yang Xue, former head of the Electronics Division under the Guangdong Provincial Economic & Information Commission.
Yang was sentenced to 11 years in jail for accepting nearly 3 million yuan ($483,000) in bribes from five enterprises in return for granting them government subsidies for promoting the flat panel display industry.
TCL Optoelectronics Technology (Huizhou) Co Ltd, a subsidiary of TCL Corp, allegedly obtained nearly 80 million yuan ($13 million) in government subsidies. In return, a TCL Optoelectronics’ vice president, identified only as He, paid Yang 300,000 yuan ($48,716) in bribes through a third person.
Reports said TCL would have run a deficit without the government subsidies.
TCL said it was unaware of the actions by the employee, and that it had no intention to engage in bribery.
The company added that government subsidies it has obtained have had no impact on its profit or loss.
In June last year, the National Audit Office discovered that TCL Corp defrauded government subsidies for energy-saving air conditioners by more than 18 million yuan ($3 million) through inflated sales figures.
Sources: Global Times, Guangzhou Daily (广州日报), STCN (证券时报网), Caixin (财新网)
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Hui Zhi is the Senior Manager for Content with the China Compliance Digest, where a version of this post first appeared.
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