i1. New laws or regulations
State level: No developments.
Local level (Beijing & Shanghai): No developments.
Communist Party Rules: No developments.
2. Upcoming laws or regulations
No developments.
3. Government Action
(1) On February 6, 2015, Ma Yingkui (“Ma”), the former Deputy Chief of the Standing Committee of People’s Congress of Heping District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking bribes exceeding RMB 5.2 million (USD 828,916) and abuse of power by the Intermediate People’s Court of Dandong City, Liaoning Province.
Allegedly, from 2012 to the first half year of 2013, Ma has accepted RMB 1.32 million (USD 210,417), USD 40,000 and shop cards valued at RMB 100,000 (USD 15,940) from an individual named Shi Haiying (“Shi”) on several occasions, and provided assistance for Shi in obtaining illegal demolition compensation for three affiliated companies of Shi exceeding RMB 100 million (USD 15.94 million).
In 2012, Ma accepted RMB 600,000 (USD 95,644) from the chairman of Shenyang Lexi Printing Co., Ltd., an individual surnamed Quan, and sought illegal benefits in demolition and relocation of the company’s plant. Ma was also found guilty of taking bribes on another 30 occasions by abusing his power from 2004 to 2013.
(2) It was reported on February 11, 2015 that Qi Pingjing (“Qi”), the former Deputy Director of China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, was sentenced to life imprisonment with all his personal property confiscated for accepting bribes and embezzlement by the Intermediate People’s Court of Zibo City, Shandong Province.
Qi was accused of seeking illegal benefits for bribe-givers in raising money for registered capital, real estate purchase, job arrangement, etc. by abusing his position, and accepted bribes amounting to RMB 10.04 million (USD 1.6 million) during his term of office from 2000 to early 2013. Besides, Qi was charged of illegally embalming RMB 600,000 (USD 95,644) in the name of construction payment to a construction company based in Tianjin in the second half year of 2003.
(3) On February 13, 2015, Yang Yueguo (“Yang”), the former Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes and embezzlement by the Intermediate Railroad Transportation Court of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, with all his personal property confiscated.
Reportedly, during his term of office from 2003 to 2013, Yang has accepted bribes totaling RMB 21.2 million (USD 3.37 million) from several individuals and enterprises, and in exchange, sought illegal benefits in grant of state-owned land use right, coordination of construction project and job promotion for bribe-givers by taking advantage of his position. Yang was also found guilty of embezzling the jadeite products valued at RMB 200,000 (USD 31,881) purchased by public funds in February, 2012. Yang was given a lighter sentence due to his confession.
(4) On February 15, 2015, Huang Fengping (“Huang”), the former Deputy Chief of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning, was sentenced to 19 years in jail by Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court for embezzlement, taking bribes, misappropriation and holding a large amount of property from unidentified sources.
Huang, a well-known neurosurgeons in China, was found guilty of embezzling public funds of RMB 70,000 (USD 11,162) and taking bribes exceeding RMB 301 million (USD 479,998) by abusing his position. During Huang’s term of office as the chairman of Chinese Neurosurgical Society of Chinese Medical Association (the “Association”), he misappropriated properties of the Association worth over RMB 1.41 million (USD 224,849). Furthermore, the sources of his properties valued at RMB 11 million (USD 1.75 million) were unable to be explained. Huang was given a lighter sentence due to his confession.
(5) On February 28, 2015, Ni Fake (“Ni”), the former Deputy Governor of Anhui Province was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment by the Intermediate People’s Court of Dongying City, Shandong Province for accepting bribes and holding a large amount of property from unidentified sources, with his personal property valued at RMB 1 million (USD 159,480) confiscated.
Ni was charged of accepting, solely or together with other individuals, cash and jades worth RMB 12.96 million (USD 2.06 million) from 9 individuals on 49 occasions from 2000 to 2012 by taking advantage of his position, and sought illegal benefits for the relevant entities. Ni also failed to explain the sources of his personal property amounting to RMB 5.78 million (USD 921,798). Ni was given a lighter sentence due to his confession and return of illegal gains.
4. Other
(1) On February 6, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced that the China-based counterparts of the “Big Four” accounting firms (Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers) have reached an agreement with the SEC with regard to their refusal to reveal their clients’ auditing documents to the SEC. According to the SEC, the Big Four has agreed to pay USD 500,000 respectively and admitted that they had failed to provide required documents to the SEC before 2012 when the proceeding was brought against them by the SEC. The Big Four eventually started providing the required documents to SEC, and were required to take specific measures to satisfy the requests from SEC for similar documents in the following four years.
5. China-related FCPA Action
No developments.
