Official gets 16 years for corruption, accepting bribes

Hu Jianhua, the former deputy chief of the environmental protection bureau of Tongzhou district of Beijing, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being convicted of accepting bribes and corruption.

Hu, 52, was convicted of accepting bribes totaling 1.2 million yuan ($188,500) and embezzling more than 400,000 yuan in public funds by a court in Tongzhou district on Wednesday afternoon.

Hu was the deputy environment protection bureau of Tongzhou district from 2000 until his arrest last March.

According to the court, Hu used his personal influence to get a favorable price when he purchased a villa from a developer in Beijing, during which process he gained more than 395,000 yuan.

The court also found that he used his influence to help a company win a bid for a project to reconstruct boiler houses in Beijing, and accepted 220,000 yuan from the company.

Meanwhile, he also used his power to profit from his connections with an environmental protection project company in Beijing and several other construction companies.

The court said he used his influence to undertake projects from the authorities in the name of the company he virtually controlled at high contract fees and then switch the contract to other construction companies at much lower fees, during which process he retained the profits.

During the court proceedings, Hu admitted he took money in the above cases, but refused to accept the charges of bribery and corruption.