Billionaire's daughter jailed, property confiscated

The daughter of a former billionaire from railway business has been sentenced to seven years in prison for illegal business operations. Her personal property worth 80 million yuan ($13 million) has been confiscated.

Hou Junxia is the daughter of Ding Shumiao, a business woman who owns Boyou Investment Management Corp in Beijing. Ding was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 2.5 billion yuan on Tuesday.

Ding, 59, a native of Shanxi province, received more than 20 million yuan in commissions from introducing railway construction projects to other companies and helped 23 companies win the bid for 57 projects from 2007 to 2010.

Hou was the deputy head of Boyou and head of an investment company of coal business.

She was the right-hand person of her mother and they gained huge benefit with the help from former railway minister Liu Zhijun who accepted bribes totaling 49 million from 2004 to 2011. Hou and her mother served as middle persons in Liu's trade of power for money.

Liu was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in July 2013 for corruption and abuse of power.