Dong Hong at the Intermediate People's Court of Qingdao Photo: People's Daily

Dong Hong, a former deputy leader of the central government's discipline inspection team, was accused of taking more than 460 million yuan ($70.9 million) in bribes in the first trial at the Intermediate People's Court of Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province on Thursday.

The city's procuratorate accused Dong of taking advantage of multiple positions to seek benefits for himself and relevant organizations in project development, project contracting and personnel arrangement, and illegally accepting property worth of more than 460 million yuan.

The procuratorate requested an investigation of Dong's criminal responsibility for taking bribes.

On April 12, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC and the National Commission of Supervision put Dong on file for investigation for serious violations of discipline and law.

Dong has been involved in disciplinary inspections of several state-owned enterprises such as Shenhua Group Corp. Several leaders from the group were embroiled in scandals over management lapses and corruption in 2015. 

Dong, 68, has also been exposed for engaging in various superstitious activities in violation of CPC discipline.

From October 2020 to the present, several officials participating in several inspection tasks from central to local governments have been investigated, including Cao Jing, former head of the inspection group of the CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, and Zhou Shiming, former head of the fourth inspection group of CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee.

Dong pled guilty and repented in court in his statement on Thursday after the prosecution presented relevant evidence. The sentence will be announced at a later date.

Global Times