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SCMP Reporter

He paid for a hit on a policeman who was blackmailing him

A billionaire has been sentenced to death for hiring his brother and cousins to murder a police officer who tried to blackmail him over an assassination plot, mainland media reported.

The Intermediate People's Court in Liaoyang, Liaoning province, sentenced Yuan Baojing  to death on Thursday for intentional murder, a Xinhua report said yesterday.

In 1996, Yuan's personal assets were estimated at more than  3 billion yuan.

His brother Yuan Baoqi , and Yuan Baoshen , one of his cousins, were also sentenced to death by the court.

Yuan Baofu , another cousin, was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

According to the Xinhua report,  Yuan Baojing blamed his business partner, Liu Han , for the loss of about 90 million yuan in futures trading in Sichuan  in autumn 1996 and paid 160,000 yuan to Wang Xing , then a policeman of the special case unit in Liaoyang, to hire a hitman to assassinate Mr Liu.

Mr Liu narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the winter of 1997, but that was only the beginning.

Wang  began to blackmail Yuan Baojing, who then decided to get rid of him and paid his brother Yuan Baoqi 300,000 yuan to take care of the murder.

Following a failed murder attempt in November 2001, in which Yuan Baojing's two cousins inflicted several serious knife wounds on Wang,   he paid another 180,000 yuan to his cousins, who finally shot Wang  dead outside his home in October 2003.

Xinhua said all four defendants had indicated they would appeal against the sentences.

Yuan Baojing made his fortune with the Beijing-based Jianhao Group, earning his first 2 million yuan only six months after setting up shop in 1992. In 1994 his business acquired more than 60 companies in a series of widely publicised deals which earned him  a legendary reputation.



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Yuan

Tycoon sentenced to death for murder plot