Corrupt official done in by gambling debts

A corrupt official with a gambling addiction once sold a house he'd taken previously as a bribe to pay off his gambling debts, according to a TV documentary aired on Tuesday night.

Gan Rongkun, former political and legal affairs chief of Henan province, accepted bribes totaling over 166 million yuan ($24.5 million) and exploited his power to interfere in many judicial cases, according to the documentary.

Gan used to be the secretary of the political and legal affairs commissions of the provincial Party committees in both Henan and Heilongjiang. He had long worked in the country's customs authorities and also served as vice-governor of Hubei province.

Last month, Gan pleaded guilty to his charges in a court in Jiangsu province.

Gan became obsessed with gambling when serving as a customs official in charge of infrastructure engineering, and usually drank and gambled with businesspeople in the construction industry who would arrange gambling parties and offer to bankroll him, according to the broadcast.

He also gambled online in overseas casinos and accumulated huge debts. Apart from asking businesspeople to repay his debts, he even resorted to selling a house that he acquired through bribery to repay his debts.

When he went abroad on business, he secretly visited local casinos. If he lost, the businesspeople paid the bill, and if he won, he took the money. The total amount of money involved was in the tens of millions of yuan.

Gan offered assistance to businesspeople, including in handling cases, project contracts and business operations, during his tenure in Hubei, Heilongjiang and Henan provinces.

When taking charge of the political and legal affairs commissions in Heilongjiang and Henan provinces, he sought personal benefit by interfering in judicial cases and making power-for-money deals with businesspeople under the guise of normal work procedures, according to the documentary.

He mostly interfered in civil cases, which in his eyes were not as sensitive as criminal cases. However, Gan was willing to take the risk of interfering in criminal cases if the price was right.

In a dramatic deal, a businessman surnamed Liu offered to send Gan a 10-million-yuan bribe, even without making any requests. Later, when Gan boarded a train from Beijing to Henan, to his surprise he found Liu waiting for him in the carriage.

Liu told him his nephew had been detained by public security authorities in Luoyang city and wanted him to help in his release. Gan was not overly willing to interfere in the case but Liu directly dialed the phone of Lou Huifeng, the political and legal affairs chief in Luoyang, and asked Gan to give instructions to his subordinate over the phone.

"Can you coordinate the case and release the person?" Lou said in the documentary, recalling what Gan said in the phone conversation. The next day, Liu's nephew was released.

According to the documentary, Gan became more and more licentious in utilizing power to interfere in wide-ranging cases beyond civil and criminal fields until he was investigated.

On May 31, 2021, Gan was smoking on the platform at Beijing West Railway Station and waiting for the departure of the train headed to Henan when officials of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection notified him he was being placed under investigation.