Details of the corruption case of Xi’ an subway office are exposed： central enterprises pay bribes with public funds, and businessmen are asked for gold bars.

Recently, the upstream journalist (reporting micro-signal: shangyounews) learned from China Judgment Document Network that Wang Zhiqiang and Tang Hongbo, two deputy directors (deputy general managers) of the former Xi ‘an Metro Construction Command Office (hereinafter referred to as "Xi ‘an Metro Office"), were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and fined 500,000 yuan in the first instance for accepting bribes.

Wang Zhiqiang (left) and Tang Hongbo (right), former deputy directors of Xi ‘an Metro Office. Official website Data Map of Xi ‘an Metro

Wang Zhiqiang was found to have taken bribes totaling 2.2 million yuan, of which 1.8 million yuan was paid by the project managers of three central enterprises involved. Tang Hongbo was found to have accepted benefits from others, demanded property from others and asked others to decorate his house, equivalent to 1,797,645 yuan.

Up to now, there are three director-level officials involved in the corruption case of Xi ‘an subway. On August 1, 2017, Chen Dongshan, former deputy director of Xi ‘an Municipal People’s Congress Urban and Rural Construction Environmental Resources Protection Committee, former director of Xi ‘an Metro Office and former general manager of Xi ‘an Metro Company, was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes.

According to the statistics of upstream news, up to now, many people involved in the corruption case of Xi ‘an subway have been sentenced. In addition to Wang Zhiqiang and Tang Hongbo, Feng Ruixiang, the former director of the Electrical Products Testing Center of Xi ‘an Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Institute, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 100,000 yuan for accepting the shopping cards and cash of the heads of Shaanxi Okay Cable Co., Ltd. and other companies. Du Moumou, former deputy director of the mechanical and electrical equipment department of Xi ‘an Metro Company, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fined 200,000 yuan for accepting a thank-you fee of 400,000 yuan from Wang, an agent salesperson of Changjiang Hi-Tech Cable.

Three central enterprises offered 1.8 million yuan in cash to bribe Wang Zhiqiang, which was listed as public expenditure afterwards.

In March 2017, a net post reported that there was a problem with the cable of Xi ‘an Metro Line 3, which caused public concern. The Xi ‘an Municipal Government held a press conference to announce that the five specifications of cables used in Metro Line 3 and produced by Shaanxi Okay Cable Co., Ltd. were all unqualified.

A month later, an employee who claimed to be a subway company reported online that Wang Zhiqiang, deputy director of Xi ‘an Metro Office, was involved in bribery in project contracting, and illegally contracted more than ten subway export sites such as SpringJinqiao, Laodong Road and Anyuanmen of Xi ‘an Metro Lines 1, 2 and 3 to individual companies. A number of commercial buildings outside the station are illegal buildings, and the developer Shaanxi Helituo seeks to carve up a huge profit of 30 million yuan every year by renting out. According to the agreement, the total amount of corruption in 20 years exceeds 600 million yuan.

According to the judgment, in December 2007, China Railway 18th Bureau won the bid for the TJSG-1 section of the civil works from North Railway Station to Zhangjiabao Station of Xi ‘an Urban Rapid Rail Transit Line 2, which was managed by Yang, the project manager of the Third Company of China Railway 18th Bureau. In 2008, during the project construction, problems such as house demolition, relocation of heating pipeline and installation of temporary transformer affected the construction progress.

In order to solve the problem quickly, Yang found Wang Zhiqiang and hoped that he could help to coordinate and solve related problems. In January 2009, Yang went to Wang Zhiqiang’s home and gave him a cardboard box containing 400,000 yuan in cash, thanking him for his help in the North Railway Station project. A week later, Yang gave him a cardboard box containing 400,000 yuan in cash near Wang Zhiqiang’s home.

Subsequently, in order to solve the problems existing in the construction of China Railway 18th Bureau, Wang Zhiqiang found weiyang district Urban Construction, Xi ‘an Thermal Power Corporation and Xi ‘an Power Supply Bureau to communicate and coordinate, and organized a site meeting on behalf of the Metro Office to solve the problems affecting the construction progress.

However, the 800,000 yuan that Yang, the project manager of China Railway 18th Bureau, gave to Wang Zhiqiang was not his personal burden. At that time, Li, the financial director of the project department of the Third Company of China Railway 18th Bureau, confirmed that the money was handed over to Yang in the name of work coordination, with 400,000 yuan each. Later, in order to make up the cash inventory, the finance department of Xi ‘an North Station Project Department of China Railway 18th Bureau collected 800,000 yuan in cash from four construction teams by borrowing, and then the project planning department listed 800,000 yuan as the project cost by pricing, which was paid to the construction teams by the finance department in the form of project funds.

China Railway 18th Bureau is not the only one who embezzles public funds and pays bribes.

In December, 2009, China Railway No.9 Bureau and China Railway No.19 Bureau Group won the bid for the civil construction of the D2TJSG-26 and D2TJSG-22 sections from the Convention and Exhibition Center of Xi ‘an Urban Rapid Rail Transit Line 2 to the south section of Weiqu, respectively. Li, then the project manager of China Railway No.9 Bureau, and Wang, then the project manager of China Railway No.19 Bureau, were in charge. The following year, due to inadequate compensation for land expropriation, the villagers collectively blocked the work, and the construction progress was affected by the demolition and relocation of the pipeline of Sanyan Station and the relocation of the tap water pipeline in the D2TJSG-22 bid section of civil construction, so they turned to Wang Zhiqiang for help.

One day at the end of 2010, Wang, the project manager of China Railway 19th Bureau, went to the Wang Zhiqiang office and talked to Wang Zhiqiang about the project. When he left, he left a bag with 500,000 yuan in cash and told Wang Zhiqiang that he hoped Wang Zhiqiang would help solve the existing problems as soon as possible.

Through the coordination of Wang Zhiqiang, the problems existing in the above two enterprises have been solved one after another, thus ensuring the contract period.

Afterwards, in order to express his gratitude and hope to continue to get Wang Zhiqiang’s care, one day before the Spring Festival in 2010, Li, then the project manager of China Railway Ninth Bureau, came to Wang Zhiqiang’s office to express his gratitude. When he left, he left two black bags with a total of 500,000 yuan in cash.

Li and Wang respectively sent out a total of 1 million yuan in bribes, all of which were public funds of the project department.

According to Wang, then deputy manager of the project department of Xi ‘an Metro Line 2 of China Railway Ninth Bureau, the project department decided to pay the money in advance by three cooperative teams after research, and then supplemented it in the contract inspection. Later, the finance department of the project department gave 500,000 yuan to the assisting unit one after another with the imaginary engineering quantity. At that time, Xing Mou, the financial director of the project department of Xi ‘an Metro Line 2 of the 19th Bureau of China Railway, also said that the 500,000 yuan sent by the project department was later listed on the financial account by falsely listing labor expenses.

Tang Hongbo asked businessmen to decorate their houses and also asked for gold bars.

Tang Hongbo, another deputy director of Xi ‘an Metro Office, also accepted huge bribes.

According to official data, during his tenure in Xi ‘an Metro Office, Tang Hongbo was mainly responsible for the construction of Metro Line 3 and the land reserve of the subway, and concurrently served as the director of the land reserve center, in charge of the first project and the land reserve office (land reserve center). In addition, it is worth noting that Tang Hongbo used to be the secretary of Chen Baogen, the former mayor of Xi ‘an.

In March 2017, after the "Okay Cable Incident" broke out in Xi ‘an subway, the Xi ‘an Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection released a list of 12 people who were investigated for suspected violation of discipline, the first one being Tang Hongbo.

According to the judgment, in October 2011, Xi ‘an Metro Company and Shaanxi Land Real Estate Co., Ltd. signed the Equity Cooperation Agreement for the Development Project of Jixiang Village Station of Metro Line 3 to jointly develop more than 50 mu of state-owned land acquired by the demolition of Xiaozhai West Road and Hanguang Road Cross in Yanta District of Xi ‘an. The two parties agreed to jointly fund the establishment of Metro Real Estate, with Tang Hongbo as the chairman and legal representative of Metro Real Estate on behalf of Xi ‘an Metro, and Wang, the legal representative of Shaanxi Land Real Estate Company, as the general manager of Metro Real Estate. Shaanxi Land Real Estate Company is responsible for the investment of project development funds, and Metro Real Estate is specifically responsible for the project implementation.

In June and July, 2013, after the delivery of Yu Feng Xin Yuan, a commercial house in Xi ‘an purchased by Tang Hongbo, he asked Wang, the legal representative of Shaanxi Land Property Company, to design and decorate the house. Wang has arranged for the subway real estate staff to be specifically responsible for the renovation. The renovation of the house and the purchase of furniture and appliances cost a total of 228,220 yuan, and all the required funds were paid from the financial loan of the subway real estate, and the subway real estate handled the expenses.

According to the reporter, Wang is Henry Hui Wang, the former general manager of Xi ‘an Metro Real Estate. On December 25th, 2017, the Yanta District Court of Xi ‘an convicted Henry Hui Wang of embezzlement of public funds and sentenced him to five months’ detention.

The judgment of the first instance also shows that at the end of December 2012, during the implementation of the project, Tang Hongbo asked Wang to provide him with two gold bars in the name of New Year greetings. Wang used a credit card to pay 138,800 yuan, bought four gold products (100 grams each), and gave two of them to Tang Hongbo in the office.

The judgment further revealed that Tang Hongbo had helped Silian Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Silian Intelligent), a company listed on the New Third Board, win the bid for the installation and decoration of station equipment in the first phase of Xi ‘an Metro Line 3. In May and June 2015, Zhang, then the legal representative of Silian Intelligent and Tang Hongbo’s "small hair", gave Tang Hongbo a benefit fee of 1.5 million yuan.

After Tang Hongbo received 1.5 million yuan, part of it was paid for building in Huyi District of Xi ‘an, and part of it was used to buy furniture, cars and other household consumption.　

(The original title is "Details of the corruption case of two deputy directors of Xi ‘an Metro Office: central enterprises paid bribes with 1.8 million yuan of public funds, and businessmen were asked for gold bars")