Coal official hides $32 million cash at home: procurator

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-10-31 14:46:56

Prosecuting authorities seized more than 200 million yuan (32 million US dollars) in cash from the house of an energy official, a prosecutor revealed Friday at a press conference.

The money, the largest amount seized since the founding of new China in 1949, was found at the home of Wei Pengyuan, vice director of the National Energy Administration's coal department, according to Xu Jinhui, anti-bribery chief of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Wei was put under investigation in May for allegedly accepting bribes.

The administration was under the management of the graft-tainted National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planning body, which saw 11 officials punished in the first nine months of this year, according to Xu.

Former deputy chief of the NDRC, Liu Tienan, was expelled from the Communist Party of China and questioned over alleged graft practices in August last year. This was followed by the fall of a number of high-ranking corrupt officials in the country's sweeping anti-graft campaign.

Six of the eleven officials were implicated in cases involving over ten million yuan each, and several leaders of the NDRC's Price Department, including its current head and deputy head, were found to be involved in corruption, said Xu.

He said an important reason for corruption is that these officials have too much power.

"Taking the money and doing what they are paid to do has been an unspoken rule. Everyone knows it and nobody will break the tacit agreement," Xu said.

China prosecuted 21,652 officials accused of bribery in the first nine months, with 13,414 of those cases resulting in convictions, according to Xu.

The courts have handed down judgements to 13,437 among those prosecuted, and only 23 were found to be innocent, the anti-bribery head said.

He added that procuratorates across the country had grilled 35,633 officials from January to September, including 319 at the mayoral level or higher.

In the first nine months, prosecuting authorities also captured 502 bribery suspects who had fled abroad, according to Xu.

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