State firms paid half the bribes rail executive Luo Jinbao received
Former railways executive Luo Jinbao was showered with cash, cars and luxury goods to sway bids and evade penalties, prosecutors say
About half of the bribes taken by a former top railways executive came from other state-owned railway companies, prosecutors have said, painting a damning portrait of rampant corruption in the sector.
During the trial of former China Railway Container Transport chairman Luo Jinbao in Heilongjiang last week, it was revealed that several state railway companies showered Luo with cash, cars and luxury goods to win bids and escape punishment for construction code violations, mainland media reported. Payments from companies amounted to half of the 47 million yuan (HK$57.7 million) in bribes Luo is accused of accepting between 2005 and 2010.
In that time, he oversaw preparations for the high-speed line from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, and led the Railways Ministry's bureaus in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and Urumqi, Xinjiang .
Ten companies under China Railways and China Railway Construction paid Luo 14 million yuan, in addition to giving him a Land Rover and a luxury watch, The Beijing News reported.
Luo, 56, once told his lawyer, Gao Zicheng, that he dared not refuse such bribes from the railways sector and he feared he might offend the bosses of the companies, the newspaper said.
Luo's trial was widely seen as a warm-up for a series of graft cases involving former top railways officials, including ousted railways minister Liu Zhijun and former deputy chief engineer Zhang Shuguang.
A source from the railways sector told Caixin Century Weekly that bribing regional bureau chiefs was a common practice for state-owned railway companies as competition for bids was fierce.