Beijing Zoo boss who put 8 million yuan fortune down to part-time taxi driving is jailed for life for corruption
Former deputy chief of China’s Beijing Zoo, who claimed he earned 8 million yuan (about HK$10 million) from part-time jobs, including working as a taxi driver, is jailed for life for corruption.
The former deputy chief of China’s Beijing Zoo – who claimed his 8 million yuan (about HK$10 million) fortune was earned from part-time jobs, including working as a taxi driver – was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Beijing court this morning.
The Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court found Xiao Shaoxiang guilty of corruption, including taking bribes and “possessing huge assets of unknown origin”.
All his personal property would be confiscated, the Beijing-based newspaper, Mirror, reported on its official mainland microblogging Weibo website.
Prosecutors said six million yuan in cash, paintings and gold bullion from unknown sources were found in Xiao’s apartment – a cache worth a total of 8 million yuan, the court said during his trial in August.
He was charged with accepting bribes totalling more than 140 million yuan.
Xiao, 59, had denied all the charges during the trial.
He had defended himself by claiming that he had earned the money from moonlighting as an unlicensed cab driver after work at the zoo from 1991 to 1994.
“During the day I rented the car to a construction company, and went out to carry passengers at night,” he told the court.
“I earned 50,000 [yuan] a year, and earned more than 200,000 [yuan] in total.”
Xiao said his other moonlighting activities included selling stones and artworks, as well as helping part-time on construction projects, which provided him an income of several million yuan.
“I worked overtime every day, and didn’t rest at weekends or on public holidays,” he told the court.
Xiao also told the court that all the assets had come from “legitimate income”. He claimed his wealth could be traced to a combination of sources, including his salary and also loans from relatives.
“All the money [came from] my payroll, investment income and a part of it was borrowed from relatives,” Xiao told the court.
However, he failed to provide evidence for his defence. “[It has been] so many years; the IOUs were all lost,” Xiao said.
While working as deputy director of Beijing Zoo, Xiao also served as director of the Beijing Taoranting Park and was in charge of the zoo’s reconstruction project between 2006 and 2008.
Prosecutors said Xiao took more than 10 million yuan in project funds and placed it in a company under his name. They said he had also kept 100,000 yuan in bribes from the construction companies.
Xiao said in his defence that the construction projects were completed up to very high standards, despite him skimming money from the budget.
He had been detained by Beijing police last March.
