Ex-energy official sentenced for bribery

Wei Pengyuan, a former senior energy official, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Monday for accepting bribes of 211.7 million yuan ($31.4 million) and possessing a huge amount of property from an unidentified source, according to a court in Hebei province.

Wei, former deputy director of the National Energy Administration's Coal Department, was stripped of his political rights for life, and all of his personal belongings were confiscated, according to the Baoding Intermediate People's Court on Monday.

Judicial officers found that he had concealed illicit assets of more than 200 million yuan at his home. Sixteen cash-counting machines were sent from a Beijing bank to tally his illegal funds, and four of them broke down in the process.

Wei will have no chance for parole after receiving a suspended death sentence, considering the amount of money involved and the negative social impact of his actions, the court said. According to Chinese law, the death sentence with a reprieve is typically commuted to a life sentence if the convict commits no further crimes during the two-year period.

According to the court, Wei abused his power to benefit others and accepted huge bribes during coal project reviews, bidding and examinations by experts, and he also helped others sell equipment illegally, between 2000 and 2014.

During those years, he mainly served as a senior official in the Coal Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, senior official in the Coal and Oil Department at the NDRC and vice-director of the National Energy Administration's Coal Department.

The court gave him death with reprieve rather than an outright death sentence because "Wei had confessed his crimes and expressed his regret during a court hearing, and the illicit assets were recovered in full," according to a statement by the court.

In May 2014, he was placed under investigation for "serious discipline violation" by the nation's top anti-graft watchdog. Judicial officers discovered more than 200 million yuan in cash at his home, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The money involved is the largest amount seized from an individual official since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

He is the latest of several high-ranking officials sentenced in recent days. On Friday, Jin Daoming, former senior legislator in North China's Shanxi province, was convicted of taking bribes of 124 million yuan and sentenced to life in prison by a court in Jiangsu province.

Since November 2012, when the new leadership was elected, anti-corruption has become a top priority, and President Xi Jinping has launched a sweeping campaign to target both high-and low-ranking officials.

More than 140 senior corrupt officials have been investigated for alleged corruption.

zhangyan1@chinadaily.com.cn