A Shenzhen court yesterday sentenced a former manager of a trading company to death for his part in one of the biggest smuggling cases in Guangdong's history.
Liu Hao, former manager of Shenzhen Huiwei Industrial and Trading, was found guilty by the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court over an operation from 1996 to 1998 in which more than 820,000 tonnes of cooking oil were smuggled into the country.
According to the official Xinhua news agency, 10 accomplices of Liu were also sentenced yesterday including You Nianqiu, a former manager of a shipping company in Huizhou. They received terms from seven to 15 years in jail.
The court also imposed a record 2.4 billion yuan (HK$2.26 billion) fine on Liu's firm - the same amount of customs duties the gang evaded through smuggling activities. The court also ordered the confiscation of 23 vehicles, an unspecified amount of bank deposits and several houses belonging to Liu's company.
Information released by the court showed that Liu and his partners had forged import contracts and paid off former Shenzhen customs chief Zhao Yucun to smuggle oil from Hong Kong into Huizhou. Zhao was sentenced to life in prison last December for accepting bribes from Liu and his partners. Officials were shocked by how deeply the smuggling operation penetrated the customs departments in Shenzhen and Huizhou.
The trials in Shenzhen yesterday coincided with an anti-smuggling conference in Beijing, where Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the central government's commitment to crack down on the crime.