2010-06-23 15:14

Jin Hongli, a 47-year-old former deputy chief from the economic investigation division of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, was sentenced to 12 years in jail on Monday for acting as a go-between for Huang Guangyu in his bribery of tax officials.

Jin was paid 1.5 million yuan for his illegal actions.

The sentence was handed down by the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

Huang, once China's richest man and the former chairman of home appliance giant Gome Group, was sentenced last month to 14 years for bribery and insider dealing.

According to the indictment, Jin took advantage of his position between 2006 and 2008 and acted on behalf of Huang and the chairman of Zhongguancun Science and Technology, Xu Zhongmin.

The indictment says Jin invited Sun Haiting, a former director with the inspection bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, and two other Beijing taxation officials to meet Huang and address Gome's tax issues.

In return, Jin received a total of 1.5 million yuan from Huang and Xu for making the introductions.

In court, Xu said: "At first, we gave Jin 300,000 yuan. After he accepted the bank card (containing 300,000 yuan), we read 'discontent' on his face. He said that all of the three taxation officials were introduced because of his relationship with them and the 'gratitude fee' should be worth 'at least 2 to 3 million yuan'."

Xu said it amounted to "extorting bribes behavior".

After that, at Xu's request, Huang gave Jin an additional 1.2 million yuan in cash.

Jin tried to claim in court that the 1.5 million yuan was not his.

"The money is what Huang and Xu entrusted me to deliver to others and was not for me," he claimed.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Jin denied prosecution claims that, in May 2008, he deposited 1.5 million yuan in his bank account.

The court decided that Jin, as a government employee, had accepted bribes.

However, because those bribes were recovered by the court, he was eligible for a lighter punishment than he might otherwise have received.