Four years ago, the "Cao Yuan" incident that caused a sensation in the country was still not over.
Recently, a judgment published by the China Judgment Documents Network shows that Liu Xinlong, a section member of the Yabuli Real Estate Registration and Transaction Sub-Center of the Natural Resources Bureau of Shangzhi City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to ten years for bribery.
Liu Xinlong's bribery mainly revolved around Li Weilin, then mayor of Hailin and secretary of the municipal party committee. And Li Weilin is the key figure of the "Cao Yuan" incident that sensationalized the country in 2018. Earlier, Time Finance had reported that another public official who had paid bribes to Li Weilin had been sentenced.
It is reported that affected by the Caoyuan incident, at least 74 party and government leading cadres and public officials have been held accountable.
He took 14.15 million yuan of stolen goods and only took 2.25 million
From 2006 to 2007, Li Weilin, then secretary of the Party Committee and director of the Mudanjiang Management Office of the Heilongjiang Provincial Toll Road Administration, helped Liu Xinlong contract a number of road maintenance projects at the Mudanjiang Management Office. Liu Xinlong made a profit of 2 million yuan through these projects. Liu Xinlong paid a bribe of 1.7 million yuan to Li Weilin, and Liu Xinlong made a profit of 300,000 yuan.
From 2008 to 2012, Li Weilin, then mayor and secretary of the Hailin Municipal Party Committee, helped Liu Xinlong undertake a number of greening projects at the Hailin Garden Management Station. Liu Xinlong borrowed the project to make a profit of 4 million yuan. Liu Xinlong paid a bribe to Li Weilin with all the money.
From 2009 to 2011, Li Weilin helped defendant Liu Xinlong to contract a number of water conservancy projects of the Hailin Municipal Water Bureau. Liu Xinlong made a profit of 600,000 yuan through these projects. Liu Xinlong paid a bribe of 500,000 yuan to Li Weilin, and Liu Xinlong made a profit of 100,000 yuan.
From 2009 to 2013, Li Weilin also helped defendant Liu Xinlong to contract a number of land consolidation projects of the Hailin Municipal Land Bureau, with a total profit of 750,000 yuan, Li Weilin accepted 700,000 yuan from Liu Xinlong, and Liu Xinlong made a profit of 50,000 yuan.
From 2011 to 2014, Li Weilin helped Liu Xinlong contract a number of greening projects in Hailin Economic Development Zone, with a total profit of 3 million yuan, Li Weilin accepted 2 million yuan from Liu Xinlong, and Liu Xinlong made a profit of 1 million yuan.
From 2011 to 2014, Li Weilin helped defendant Liu Xinlong to contract the greening project of the Mudanjiang Municipal Landscape Management Office, with a total profit of 1.3 million yuan, Li Weilin received 1 million yuan, and Liu Xinlong made a profit of 300,000 yuan.
In 2016, Li Weilin helped Liu Xinlong contract the 2016 field engineering construction project of the Hailin Municipal Land Bureau, and Liu Xinlong subcontracted the project, and Liu Xinlong again made a profit of 800,000 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned bribes accepted by Li Weilin from Liu Xinlong were all kept by Liu Xinlong. Liu Xinlong also paid Li Weilin the purchase price, decoration money, investment equity capital, purchase of gold coupons, car purchases, etc., an additional expenditure of 630,000 yuan, which was deducted by Liu Xinlong from Li Weilin's dividends from Li Weilin's dividends at The Jetcoin Microfinance Company in Hailin City.
The Mishan Municipal People's Court of Heilongjiang Province held that the defendant Liu Xinlong gave property to state functionaries in order to seek improper benefits, and the circumstances were particularly serious, and his conduct constituted the crime of bribery.
According to the trial, although Li Weilin took the initiative to contract the project for Liu Xinlong and Li Weilin proposed the distribution criteria, Liu Xinlong agreed, and said that without Li Weilin's help, he could not obtain the project and profits, and the two parties had acquiesced to the transaction method and could not reflect coercion in the process of the transaction, so the fact that the public prosecution organ accused Li Weilin of asking for money from the defendant Liu Xinlong was not recognized.
After the judgment was pronounced, defendant Liu Xinlong was not satisfied, and appealed on the grounds that the original judgment found that his conduct was not an error in the determination of facts before being prosecuted, that the application of law was wrong, and that the sentence in the original judgment was improper.
The court of second instance held that Liu Xinlong only confessed the issue of bribery after filing a case against him in Mishan City, and his behavior did not belong to the act of voluntarily confessing bribery before being prosecuted, so the grounds for appeal and defense opinions put forward by the appellant Liu Xinlong and his defender were not accepted.
In the end, Liu Xinlong was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and fined 500,000 yuan for the crime of bribery; 2.25 million yuan of illegal gains were recovered and handed over to the state treasury by the seizing organs according to law.
The aftermath of "Cao Yuan"
It is worth noting that the bribe-taker in the above case, Li Weilin, is the key figure in the "Cao Yuan" incident that sensationalized the whole country in 2018.
In 2018, the Voice of China exposed that "Mudanjiang destroyed 100 acres of forest to build a private estate", like the wings of a butterfly, caused a storm. "Cao Yuan" covers an area of 19 hectares in the national forest area, luxurious and rich like a royal private courtyard, and the whistleblower also exposed that the owner of "Cao Yuan" hid guns and was involved in corruption, smuggled bear paws, and used tiger meat to privately feast on officials and nobles.
What has attracted much attention is that the whistleblower of Cao Yuan has publicly said that Zhang Jingchuan, the former secretary of the Mudanjiang Municipal Party Committee, has eaten in Cao Yuan many times and is known as the guest of honor of Cao Yuan. There are also media reports that the development plan that lists Caoyuan as a key tourism project has reported to Zhang in detail and listened to instructions.
It is worth mentioning that according to the China Business Daily, Cao Bo sent Zhang Jingchuan a collection worth more than 2 million yuan in Cao Garden through Li Weilin' lead.
In November 2016, Zhang Jingchuan was investigated. After the procuratorial organs verified in accordance with law, defendant Zhang Jingchuan used his power to seek benefits for others and accept bribes in a total of more than 70 crimes, and the total value of bribes accepted was more than 10 million yuan. In addition, it also embezzled more than 3 million yuan, and more than 17 million yuan of family property could not be explained as legal sources.
Among them, Li Weilin, the former mayor of Hailin City, in order to be promoted to the secretary of the municipal party committee, gave Zhang Jingchuan 30,000 yuan, 50,000 US dollars and a pair of rhino horns worth 622,500 yuan four times.
Li Weilin was also criminally detained in 2018 on suspicion of bribery and arrested two weeks later with the approval of the Jixi City Procuratorate. On December 12, 2018, the Mishan Municipal Court of First Instance found Li Weilin guilty of bribery and sentenced him to three years in prison.
Li Weilin did not only take the initiative to contract the project for Liu Xinlong, Time Finance previously reported that Li Weilin also contracted the project for He Xingkui, the former director of the Party Committee Office of the Heilongjiang Meteorological Bureau (at the department level), and accepted a bribe of 5.8 million yuan, and He Xingkui illegally obtained 6.86 million yuan.
At the end of 2021, He Xingkui was convicted of bribery and sentenced to 10 years in prison and confiscated 100,000 yuan of property. He Xingkui's illegal gains of 6.86 million yuan were recovered and handed over to the state treasury.
At present, the illegal construction of Caoyuan garden has been demolished. Cao Bo, the owner of Cao Garden, was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined 1.7 million yuan for committing the crime of indiscriminate logging, illegal purchase of precious and endangered wildlife products, and false litigation. According to reports, affected by the Caoyuan incident, 74 party and government leading cadres and public officials were held accountable. (Beijing Time Finance Chen Shiai)