Chinese police boss jailed for buying property with graft money in Australia

A Chinese court has sentenced a senior police officer to 17 years in prison for his part in a bribes-for-projects scandal, proceeds from which were used to buy two homes in Australia, according to court documents.

The corruption case comes amid an Australian government crackdown on foreign investors who have skirted overseas investment rules. 

The 59-year-old police boss of Guta district of Jinzhou City in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning accepted a total of 6.8 million yuan ($985,510) in bribes for contracts, according to the court documents published in early March.

He used part of the money to buy two Australian properties for his family.

In 2009, Wang accepted a bribe of 2.36 million yuan from a developer to buy a property in Australia for his eldest daughter. He accepted a second bribe of 4 million yuan from the same person in 2013 to buy a second house for his second daughter, the court said. Wang doled out construction projects in return for the bribes, it said.

The use of loopholes in Australian property rules by foreign investors has left the country grappling with the politically sensitive issue of unaffordable homes and a surge of cash from wealthy Chinese that has prompted regulators to consider tighter anti-money laundering rules

Meanwhile, the head of one of China's top graft-busting agencies has said Beijing's anti-corruption drive will clean up the relationship between government officials and enterprises, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

President Xi Jinping has waged war on corruption since assuming office more than four years ago, leading to a one-third jump in graft court cases in 2016.

The head of the Ministry of Supervision, Yang Xiaodu, said there was still a long way to go before relations between the government and enterprises were "clean", Xinhua reported on Saturday.

Yang told the China Development Forum in Beijing that some government officials abuse their authority to embezzle state-owned assets.

He said the anti-corruption drive would reduce collusion between government officials and enterprises, promoting fair competition in a market environment.

"The creation of a new type of relationship between the government and enterprises is a long-term process," Xinhua quoted Yang as saying.

Source: Timesofoman