State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao received

[Daredevil]

About half of the bribes taken by a former top railways executive came from other state-owned railway companies, prosecutors have said, painting a damning portrait of rampant corruption in the sector.

During the trial of former China Railway Container Transport chairman Luo Jinbao in Heilongjiang last week, it was revealed that several state railway companies showered Luo with cash, cars and luxury goods to win bids and escape punishment for construction code violations, mainland media reported. Payments from companies amounted to half of the 47 million yuan (HK$57.7 million) in bribes Luo is accused of accepting between 2005 and 2010.

In that time, he oversaw preparations for the high-speed line from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, and led the Railways Ministry's bureaus in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and Urumqi, Xinjiang .

Ten companies under China Railways and China Railway Construction paid Luo 14 million yuan, in addition to giving him a Land Rover and a luxury watch, The Beijing News reported.

Luo, 56, once told his lawyer, Gao Zicheng, that he dared not refuse such bribes from the railways sector and he feared he might offend the bosses of the companies, the newspaper said.

Luo's trial was widely seen as a warm-up for a series of graft cases involving former top railways officials, including ousted railways minister Liu Zhijun and former deputy chief engineer Zhang Shuguang.

A source from the railways sector told Caixin Century Weekly that bribing regional bureau chiefs was a common practice for state-owned railway companies as competition for bids was fierce.

"After winning a project, a state-owned company would usually give about 2 per cent equivalent of the total budget to the project manager, or the regional railway bureaus, and it would ask for 5 per cent kickbacks when subcontracting the project to other private construction companies," the source said.

"It was not surprising for a regional railway head to take a bribe of 47 million yuan under such rules," the source said.

It was worse after China embarked on a frenzy of high-speed railway construction spearheaded by Liu in 2003.

Luo received 16.5 million yuan and a BMW sedan from Wang Haosheng, a middleman who helped private contractors win railway bids, the magazine reported. Prosecutors also accused Luo of illegally owning a shotgun and 250 shells, which he said he kept for hunting. The Beijing News said Luo turned over more than 27 million yuan, the two cars and two apartment buildings in Beijing and Sanya , Hainan province.

Evidence made public made no mention of Luo's ties to Liu or Shanxi businesswoman Ding Shumiao.

Mainland media have previously reported that it was Luo who introduced Liu to Ding, who made 800 million yuan on rail projects and reportedly arranged young women to have sex with Liu.

Luo's lawyer Gao told The Beijing News that his client had only introduced himself to Ding after learning the businesswoman was close to Liu. Luo has reportedly been suffering from severe depression since being put under detention in Shanxi in 2010.

State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao received | South China Morning Post

 

[cinoti]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

At least he is caught, not like his counterparts in some other country, who still enjoys his luxury life on the kick back money he saved in his swiss bank account, isn't he?

 

[Ray]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

We are well aware of how many top Chinese Communist leaders and their families have stashed away black money.

And they were not caught and were living in the lap of luxury thumbing a nose at the Chinese people!

There was a few thread on that on this forum.

 

[cinoti]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

We are well aware of how many top Chinese Communist leaders and their families have stashed away black money.

And they were not caught and were living in the lap of luxury thumbing a nose at the Chinese people!

There was a few thread on that on this forum.

Yes, you are right, but still some of them got caught. heihei.

 

[Ray]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

Here you are:

Tip of the iceburg.

Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader

China

China's ruling families
Riches exposed

China's ruling families: Riches exposed | The Economist

Heirs of Mao's Comrades Rise as New Capitalist Nobility

Heirs of Mao's Comrades Rise as New Capitalist Nobility - Bloomberg

China blocks New York Times website after story on leader's family wealth
China blocks New York Times website after story on leader's family wealth - CNN.com

How very Chinese to block the truth from leaking to the people!

So, you people don't even know what is happening in your country and yet you breastbeat here with knowledge deficiency rants!

 

[Ray]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

If the bribes were not taken taken by the Minister, Luo and other functionaries of the Chinese railways, then who know China would have achieved greater landmark in the rail history!

A good chance missed!

 

[hantangsongming]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

right！corruption is a sever problem in China, we need to accept it even it was told by an Indian. hehe.
this is a problem we have to face and I believe there will be some actions taken to solve it just like this one.
China is far from perfection comparing with Europe, USA and Japan, we need to keep perfecting ourselves, the systems.
we need to accept some criticisms, even sometimes they're hostile. we needn't care too much if we are strong enough!

 

[Ray]

Re: State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao receive

right！corruption is a sever problem in China, we need to accept it even it was told by an Indian. hehe.
this is a problem we have to face and I believe there will be some actions taken to solve it just like this one.
China is far from perfection comparing with Europe, USA and Japan, we need to keep perfecting ourselves, the systems.
we need to accept some criticisms, even sometimes they're hostile. we needn't care too much if we are strong enough!

Indian are not telling anything.

We are learning of it from the international media.

Before all the attention the international (read western) media was giving China, the general impression was that China, because it has a single party Govt and being Communist was very strict and clean. (Our Communist Parties are scam free and that is the only good thing about them)

Therefore, it was felt that there could be no corruption and people if caught would be hung and because of that nobody dared to take bribes.

But the international media has given a different picture of China and we are also changing our old ideas of China being strict and clean and hence they progress rapidly.