Former CSIC chairman sentenced to 13 years for bribe taking

Hu Wenming, former chairman of China Shipbuilding Industry Company Limited (CSIC), was sentenced to 13 years in prison, along with a fine of 5 million yuan ($700,000), for crimes of taking bribes and abusing power by Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday.

According to the court, the ill-gotten gains from the case will be turned over to the state treasury. The detained money involved in abuse of power shall be returned to the relevant units that have suffered losses.

From 2001 to 2020, Hu made use of his different positions including deputy general manager of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, deputy general manager and chairman of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC), and chairman of CSIC, to help certain individuals and institutes in obtaining projects, business cooperation, asset acquisition, promotion and other matters.

In return, he accepted property amounting to 59.86 million yuan, of which 9.95 million yuan was not obtained.

From 2013 to 2015, when Hu served as the chairman and Party secretary of the leading Party group of CSSC, he accepted requests from others and accepted bribes, and deliberately violated the management duties of state-owned assets to illegally acquire the assets of private shipyards during the asset restructuring process of the subsidiary companies of CSSC, causing heavy losses.

In October 2019, CSSC and CSIC were jointly restructured into the China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited.

The actions of Hu constitute the crimes of bribery and abuse of power by a state-owned company employee. Given the particularly enormous amount of bribes received by him and the significant loss to the national interest resulting from his abuse of power for personal gain, he should be duly punished and subject to concurrent penalties according to the law, said the court.

Considering that some bribery committed by Hu was unsuccessful, and the losses caused by the abuse of power have been fully recovered after the case, and he has truthfully confessed his crimes, voluntarily disclosed most of the bribery facts unknown to the investigators, actively returned the embezzled funds, and reported others' offenses constitutes a significant contribution, the court impose a lenient penalty.

Hu, 66, a native of Jiangsu province, started his career life in 1975 and joined the Party in 1978.

From July 2010 to March 2015, he worked for CSSC, and became its chairman. Later, he served as the chairman and Party secretary of the leading Party group of CSIC till August 2019, when he retired.