China's graft-probe: Well-paid jobs for officials' spouses 'not unusual'

It is not uncommon for senior officials' spouses and children to have ceremonial but well-paid jobs at China's financial institutions, a mainland news outlet has reported, as more information surrounding the detention of a former China Minsheng Bank president comes to light.

Citing several anonymous sources, Caixin reported yesterday that Mao Xiaofeng, the bank's former president, had been implicated in the probe into former presidential aide Ling Jihua, who tried to cover up his son's death in a fatal Ferrari car crash in Beijing in 2012.

Caixin said Mao's wife, Chen Tingjia, had also been taken away by investigators. The report said Mao himself was detained on January 25, while two other executives were briefly questioned but subsequently released.

The report said Mao had helped Ling's wife Gu Liping gain a job with the bank's subsidiary. It said she held the job for three years, but did not name specific dates.

By 2011, Ling had met the bank's then chairman Dong Wenbiao and returned Gu's salaries - and asked the bank to support YBC, a charity founded by Gu, instead.

The report also said Su Rong, the disgraced deputy chief of the national political advisory body, had requested Minsheng's Jiangxi provincial branch to offer a job to his wife Yu Lifang, when Su was posted to the province. Yu was a deputy branch manager of Lanzhou city's China Merchant Bank when Su was Gansu province's party secretary between 2003 and 2006. Citing several industry insiders, Caixin reported the practice was not unusual among the mainland's financial institutions, especially at non-state banks that needed to compromise with local officials to develop business.