Luo Fei (photo), a singer in China’s railway arts group and mistress of former senior railway official Zhang Shuguang, has been sentenced to five years in prison for taking bribes together with her lover.
Zhang is the ex-deputy chief engineer and transportation bureau head under China’s now-defunct Railways Ministry. His wife and children have migrated to the United States. He met Luo in 2005 and offered her a job, a house and numerous gifts to maintain the extramarital relationship.
Luo was accused of helping Zhang accept and hide 1.98 million yuan ($322,000) in bribes offered by Yang Jianyu, legal representative of Guangzhou Zhongche Railway Sales & Leasing Co Ltd in exchange for Zhang’s help in winning train supply contracts.
Zhang received death sentence in Oct for taking 45.55 million yuan ($6.8 million) in bribes himself or along with Luo.
Mistresses have become a symbol of corruption in China. A central discipline official once said that 90% of corrupt senior officials had one or more mistresses.
Experts believe the sentence of Luo highlights the country’s stepped-up efforts to crack down on not only corrupt officials but also their associates.
Sources: China Daily, Beijing News (新京报), BBC, Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报)
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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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