Dance troupe director gets 15 years in prison

Bei Yujie, former director of Central National Song and Dance Troupe, was sentenced on Tuesday to spend 15 years behind bars for taking bribes and embezzling performers' payments.

Bei was convicted by Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court of abusing his power, embezzling 90,000 yuan ($14,200) in public money and accepting 310,000 yuan in bribes.

The case dates in part to 2005, when Qingyang, a city in Northwest China's Gansu province, held the Sachet Folk Culture Festival. The Beijing No 1 prosecuting department said the Qinyang mayor, who is surnamed Huang, then asked Bei to recruit actors to sing at the festival.

In payment for the performance, Huang remitted 90,000 yuan to Bei's personal bank account.

Bei later embezzled the money.

Moreover, the prosecuting department said Central National Song and Dance Troupe took bids on a stage construction project in 2006. The winner in that contest was the engineering company Zhejiang Dafeng.

In 2007, Bei accepted 300,000 yuan from the manager of the company, whose surname is Xu.

And in October 2010, when Bei's son got married, he accepted 10,000 yuan from the Zhejiang company, according to the prosecuting department.