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 Chen Tonghai, a former chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical, had
been given a suspended death penalty sentence for bribery.
Chen was handed the sentence with a two-year reprieve by a Beijing court after he was convicted of taking 196-million yuan (us$28m) in bribes. He has the right to appeal against the punishment, which would typically be commuted to a jail term. A former vice-minister of planning, Chen is among several high- ranking public figures caught in corruption probes amid rising public opposition to such practices.
The impact on Sinopec would be limited, said Grace Liu, an energy analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen, because the case was made public two years ago. “When it first came to light it was damaging, but the management of the company has proceeded smoothly.”
Chen’s sentence was suspended because he returned all the bribes he had taken, admitted his crimes and provided clues on the offences of others. The former Sinopec chairman took “bribes to help others, including his mistress, made unlawful profits and led a ‘corrupt life’,”.
Chen, a petroleum engineer by training, joined Sinopec unit Zhenhai Petroleum in 1983. He was appointed deputy mayor of the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo in 1989 and served as mayor from 1992 to 1994. He was vice-minister of the State Planning Commission, the forerunner of the National Development and Reform Commission, for four years until 1998. As Sinopec’s chairman, Chen was a frequent guest at international events such as the World Economic Forum. He was in a panel discussion on the competitiveness of Chinese firms at Davos in 2007.
Five months later, Chen was removed from his post as president of China Petrochemical Corporation, the parent of Sinopec, at a meeting attended by officials from state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration and the Communist Party, the then parent company. He later quit as Sinopec’s chairman.
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