Senior city official to be put on trial for multimillion-yuan embezzlement

Xin Jiping, former vice chairman of Shanghai Land (Group) Co Ltd, will be tried for corruption involving tens of millions of yuan, No. 1 Branch of Shanghai People’s Procuratorate said yesterday.

Prosecutors said Xin had abused his powers to seek profits for others. In return, he took bribes worth 2.7 million yuan (US$415,768) between 2002 and 2013.

Prosecutors found more than 600,000 yuan of deposits in his account, which was opened at a Standard Chartered Bank branch in Hong Kong in 2000, before he was detained in July last year. But he never declared it to the government.

Xin was also accused of selling 66 state-owned stores nearly 21 million yuan lower than the market price in October 2013 when he was the chairman of Shanghai Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone United Development Co Ltd.

Prosecutors said he bought four of the stores under different names and purchased another one for someone whose name was not disclosed.

He embezzled 2.9 million yuan of state assets and caused great loss to the country, prosecutors added. 

He will be tried for taking bribes, embezzlement, selling state assets at low prices and hiding his deposits outside the Chinese mainland, prosecutors said.