The ****trait of a Corrupted and Decaying "Olympic Host" -- Former party
chief of
Shanghai sentenced in corruption case
International Herald Tribune
Former party chief of Shanghai sentenced in corruption case
The Associated Press
Friday, April 11, 2008
SHANGHAI: The former Communist Party chief of China's financial capital,
Shanghai, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison for his role in a
massive corruption scandal involving a third of the city's pension funds.
Chen Liangyu, who had also been a member of China's powerful 24-seat
Politburo, was the highest-level Chinese official to be dismissed in a
decade.
His lawyer, Gao Zicheng, indicated Chen would appeal.
"If Chen appeals, it's not over," he said. He then added he could not
say anything more and hung up.
Chen was sentenced in Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
The party chief job in Shanghai, China's largest and richest city, is
one of the country's most powerful local government jobs. The man who
replaced Chen, Xi Jinping, has already been promoted again and is widely
seen as being moved into position to be China's next president.
People answering the phones at the offices of Shanghai's mayor and the
city's anti-corruption chief said they had no comment Friday.
Chen is accused of being at the center of the high-profile scandal in
which more than $400 million in pension funds were improperly invested
in real estate and toll road projects that included Shanghai's new
Formula One racetrack.
Chen had been accused of abusing his power by lending large amounts from
the pension fund and helping businessmen buy stakes in state-owned
companies, resulting in huge losses.
He was expelled from the Politburo and the party after being dismissed
as Shanghai's top leader in September 2006.
The scandal investigation, which has snared more than 25 local officials
in accusations, has been widely viewed as part of President Hu Jintao's
efforts to shove aside sup****ters of former President Jiang Zemin, whose
political base was Shanghai.
Chen was among Jiang's most powerful allies. He re****tedly clashed with
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao over Beijing's efforts to cool economic
growth, lobbying instead for ambitious infrastructure projects.
Corruption continues to be a major problem in China. Earlier this month,
Zhang Rongkun, a Shanghai tycoon, re****ted by Forbes financial magazine
to be China's 16th-wealthiest businessman in 2005, was sentenced for his
role in the scandal to 19 years in prison for bribery, share price
manipulation, financial fraud and misuse of public funds.
In January, the former Formula One racing boss in China, Yu Zhifei, was
sentenced to four years in jail for embezzlement for his own role in the
same scandal.
Pension funds make up a key part of China's social safety net in a
country with a rapidly aging population. Last May, Shanghai government
officials said all the misused pension funds had been recovered.
China's last Politburo member to be purged for corruption was the former
Beijing party secretary, Chen Xitong, who resigned in 1995 and was
sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was quietly released on medical
parole in 2006 after serving eight years of his sentence.
Chen is a common family name in China, and he and Chen Liangyu are not
related.
In December, a new Web site created by China's newly created
anti-corruption bureau crashed after barely a day because too many
visitors tried to log on to register complaints.
International Herald Tribune Copyright
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