Town official sentenced to 6 years for taking bribes

Qingpu District People's Court has sentenced a township government official to six years in prison for taking 640,000 yuan ($103,040) in bribes from a cemetery developer, the court said Monday.

The official, whom the court called Liu Degong, was accused with illegally entrusting the construction of cemeteries in the town to a developer and then sharing the illicit profits, according to a press release from the Qingpu District People's Prosecutors Office. It did not identify the town.

Liu was appointed director of the township's community management office in 2004. The position put him in charge of the town's social welfare department, which included funeral affairs. At that time, the township government was planning to expand local cemeteries. Local residents were in dire need of inexpensive cemeteries after many of the town's burial plots were relocated to make room for a government project.

In 2003, the township government dug 1,400 burial plots, with each priced at 2,200 yuan. But as the standard of living improved in the township, residents wanted more plots and larger cemeteries of higher quality.

After Liu was appointed director, he added another 3,600 plots of different sizes and quality to the town cemeteries. The price of each plot ranged from 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan.

Around that time, Zhang Fuyong, a furniture dealer, met Liu at a banquet and wanted to use their relationship to make money building cemeteries. During the Spring Festival in 2005, he offered Liu luxury liquor, cigarettes and a red envelope containing 20,000 yuan, but Liu refused.

Undeterred, Zhang continued to pursue a relationship with the official. During the Spring Festival in 2007, Liu agreed to entrust Zhang with a 400,000-yuan project to build a cemetery after taking a 20,000-yuan bribe from him.

In exchange for another 50,000 yuan in bribes, Liu eventually entrusted Zhang with all of the cemetery construction in the township. Zhang also promised to share the profits with Liu, the prosecutor's office said. The pair men earned more than 300,000 yuan in profits every year from the projects.

To earn more money, Liu began to develop expensive cemeteries with plot prices ranging from 6,800 yuan to 12,800 yuan.

Authorities became aware of the bribery after a resident reported the case to the district prosecutor's office at the beginning of 2012. A subsequent investigation showed that Liu had received 640,000 yuan in illegal income, which the court later confiscated.

The prosecutor's office did not disclose what happened to Zhang.