Court finds more women abusing power

Xuhui District People's Court has seen a marked increase over the last five years in the number of criminal cases involving female workers who abuse their positions, local media reported Sunday.

The court reached its conclusion after examining 66 criminal cases involving 72 defendants and 130 million yuan ($21.37 million), according to a report in the Shanghai Evening Post.

The report did not provide detailed figures to show the size of the increase, however.

The court's findings suggest more and more women have been getting positions where they have power they can abuse, the report said.

The court looked at 10 cases involving more than 1 million yuan. In 2003, one woman, who worked in the planning department of an unidentified government agency, accepted more than 2 million yuan in bribes for helping an unnamed property developer get approvals for its real estate projects, the report said.

In one instance, the developer paid her 900,000 yuan to help it obtain an extra 7,000 square meters for one of its projects. She also received more than 1 million yuan in total for providing similar help on three other occasions. The report said she gambled most of the money away.

In another case, an administrative secretary, who was in charge of gift cards and reimbursements at her company, embezzled 1.02 million yuan by inflating reimbursement amounts and forging the signatures of department heads.

The court pointed out that many of the defendants chose to commit embezzlement because they believed they didn't have the same opportunities for advancement as their male colleagues, according to the report.

In one case, a teacher embezzled 150,000 yuan because she thought she was underpaid and failed to obtain a raise after negotiating with her supervisor, the report said.