Chief felled by lover's craft and wife's graft

A scheming mistress and a greedy wife helped to bring down a powerful police chief who was recently jailed for life for corruption.

The Beijing Morning News yesterday reported the case of Liu Zhiduo, 52, who as police chief and party member was one of the most powerful men in Yiwu, in Zhejiang province.

He received a life sentence for accepting 449,000 yuan (HK$422,000) in bribes, all of which were confiscated by the state, while his wife Jia Jianhua was jailed for 11 years for accepting 279,000 yuan.

Zhao Lijuan, who worked in a quarantine station in the nearby city of Jinhua, played a key role in his downfall.

She became his mistress in the autumn of 1995, a few months after he had taken up his post, when they met at a university where he was attending a refresher course, the report said.

Having ingratiated herself with him, she persuaded about a dozen people to pay bribes to Liu in return for favours. His wife also got in on the act.