Grain reserve official receives sentence for bribery

Xu Baoyi, a former senior manager at a major central grain reserve company, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for taking bribes, negligence in public duty and insider trading, a court announced on Tuesday.

The Datong Intermediate People's Court in Shanxi province announced the verdict, adding Xu, former deputy general manager of China Grain Reserves Group or Sinograin, was also fined 1.3 million yuan ($182,000), with all his illegal gains confiscated.

The court found Xu took advantage of various positions, including those in charge of local initial public offering, State-owned assets supervision and at Sinograin, to offer help in project contracting and enterprise operation. He was found to have taken bribes worth some 13.8 million yuan.

During his tenure as chairman of the board at China Co-op Petro in 2014, illegal financing under his leadership led to the loss of 101 million yuan in State assets. In addition, he suggested other people buy stocks of a company after obtaining inside information illegally in 2015, which led to transactions worth abour 46.8 million yuan.

The court said as Xu confessed to most of the crimes prosecutors were not aware of, and returned the illegal gains, it granted leniency and sentenced him to a combined 17 years in prison.

Xu, a graduate of Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang province, worked multiple positions in China Co-op, a ministerial-level agency led by the central government in the distribution and selling of small commodities and agricultural supplies.

The investigation into Xu by the Communist Party of China Central Commission of Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision was announced in January last year. He stood trial this April and pleaded guilty to the charges.