Government and Policy

Senior commerce official on trial for corruption

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-19 01:15

BEIJING - The highest-ranking former official of China's Ministry of Commerce ever to stand trial stood in the dock Thursday to be charged with accepting bribes.

Former senior inspector Guo Jingyi, 44, is alleged to have accepted bribes valued at 7.65 million yuan (1.12 million U.S. dollars) -- 6 million yuan in cash and 1.65 million yuan in properties, a court official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Guo entered the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, predecessor of the Ministry of Commerce, in 1986 when he graduated from the law school of the Peking University.

In 2002, Guo was appointed deputy head of the ministry's treaty and law department. The ministry was renamed in 2003.

Guo was detained by police in October 2008, when he was acting as an MOC inspector.

Prosecutors alleged Guo took bribes of more than 6 million yuan and in return helped a Beijing company, named Beijing Capital, get approval to set up a foreign-funded firm.

Guo is also alleged to have bought a villa from a property company under Beijing Capital at a 50-percent discount in return for his help. Prosecutors believed the deal profited Guo by 1.23 million yuan, but they did not detail how Guo get the remaining 420,000-yuan in properties.

The hearing was held at the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court, said the official, who declined to reveal when a decision would be handed down.