Lan Yi stood trial at Beijing's First Intermediate People's
Court on Monday on charges of bribing a former communications
official to obtain project contracts. The total amount paid in
bribes was?1.42 million yuan (US$175,000).
Bi Yuxi, former deputy director of Beijing's communications
bureau, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on March
16, 2005. Bi had taken 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in bribes
and embezzled 3 million yuan (US$361,446) worth of state-owned
assets.
Lan was accused of bribing Bi with a total 1.42 million yuan
(US$175,000) in cash and kind between 1999 and 2004. Lan was acting
in his capacity as the representative and owner of three companies
responsible for securing construction project contracts.
Lan, aged 50 appealed for a lenient sentence on the grounds that
most of his employees are laid-off workers. Lan's lawyer explained
that the prosecutor's description of the bribery offences was not
accurate because of the manner in which Bi actually received the
money.
According to Lan, who had been friends with Bi for 15 years, Bi
disguised the bribery in three ways.
First, Bi would "win" Lan's money through mahjong games. Lan
recalled a time when Bi asked him to "hide" some money that Bi
didn't want his wife to know about.
"Sometime in 2002, he called me to his office, gave me 200,000
yuan (US$24,600) and asked me to deposit the money into my bank
account," Lan said.
Lan did as Bi had asked.
It was well known at their mahjong games that Lan was "doomed to
lose everything" to Bi.
In July 2003, Lan told Bi that he deposited the money Bi won
from him playing mahjong into the account. When Bi asked about the
sum, Lan told him there was over one million yuan (US$123,000).
"That's your money. You won it from me at the mahjong table," Lan
added.
According to Lan, what he had done was to deposit some money
into the account each time he secured a project contract from
Bi.
The second trick was a "goods for money exchange". Lan said that
he had "paid" for goods from Bi's wife Wang Xueying. Once after the
Spring Festival, Wang presented Lan with 10,000 yuan (US$1,230)
worth of expensive cigarettes and liquor. Lan then gave Wang 20,000
yuan (US$2,460) "to return the kindness". Exchanging gifts is
customary during this time.
One day in 2002 Wang Xueying gave Lan Yi six packages of
cigarettes and liquor, one package of edible bird's nest and two
bear's paws. As a return, Lan Yi gave Wang 200,000 yuan.
(US$24,600)
Third, Lan alleged that Bi would "borrow" money from him on the
pretext of helping someone else in need. On one occasion, Bi had
asked to borrow 100,000 yuan (US$12,300) from Lan. When Lan came to
Bi's office with the money Bi asked for, he found the money was to
be given to a friend of Bi's.
Lan said he wasn't too keen on lending money to anyone else
other than Bi, but eventually agreed on Bi's account.
When Lan asked for the loan to be repaid, Bi said: "Take it that
I have borrowed the money and I will pay you back."
Lan said that because of his relationship with Bi, it would have
been awkward to have asked for the money.
"This money," Lan testified, "how could I ask him to pay it
back?"
(China.org.cn August 4, 2005)
