3 officials implicated in graft case

By Cao Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-30 09:59

SHANGHAI -- Three government officials in Zhejiang province who were involved in the case of alleged corruption by Liu Genshan, Shanghai's "King of the Road", were recently taken to relevant law enforcement agencies, Caijing magazine said yesterday on its website.

Cai Jidong, former director of Shaoxing's traffic department and a friend of Liu, was arrested in May, according to the report.

The Zhejiang provincial prosecutorate approved his arrest, a legal procedure prior to prosecution, in June.

Zhang Laixing, vice-director of the traffic department, is also being investigated, the magazine said.

Both Cai and Zhang are said to have helped Liu obtain shares in the Yongjin Highway, which connects Ningbo and Jinhua in Zhejiang province, at almost a quarter of their true value, and to abscond with the project's registered capital.

Caijing also reported yesterday that Feng Shunqiao, former secretary-general of the provincial government and Party secretary of Shaoxing, who is alleged to have been involved in the Liu Genshan corruption case, is now under "interrogation".

It is a process whereby a Party member is required to confess to wrongdoings at a stipulated place within a specified time limit.

Liu Genshan, 51, was born in Shanghai and set up his business in Hong Kong. He moved back to Shanghai in the early 1990s, and has since 1999 focused on highway construction.

Liu invested heavily in seven highways - Huqingping, Hujialiu, Tongsan, Nanhuan, Ningbo Ringroad, Beilungang and Yongjin - in Shanghai municipality and Zhejiang province of a combined length of more than 900 km.

Investigations reveal that in 2004 Liu purchased 30 percent of shares in the Yongjin Highway Development Company from a government-owned company for 127 million yuan, when their worth is estimated to have been at least 433 million yuan. Cai Jidong, however, approved the deal.

The purchase made Liu sole shareholder in the highway.

From 2002 to 2004 Liu withdrew 150 million yuan of registered capital in the highway company that led to a 14 million yuan loss of interest.

The Zhejiang province public security bureau arrested Liu this June for fraudulently obtaining a bank loan.

The Hurun Report ranked Liu as the country's 36th richest man for assets totaling 2.1 billion yuan in 2004. In 2007, he ranked 590th.