Yu Shanfu, former deputy general manager of Guangdong Jianlibao Group Co., Ltd., returned to China to surrender to disciplinary and supervisory authorities after nearly 17 years on the run. Yu fled in 2002, when the founder of Jianlibao and three deputy general managers were taken in for investigation and later sentenced to prison. Moreover, when mentioning Jianlibao, one cannot avoid the name of former chairman Zhang Hai, who is also currently on the run. Colluding with others to embezzle state assets on a large scale On March 28, 2019, under the overall coordination of the Office of the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group for International Fugitive Pursuit and Asset Recovery, and through the solid work of relevant central departments and Guangdong Province, Yu Shanfu, a criminal suspect in a duty-related crime who had been on the run for nearly 17 years, returned to China to surrender to disciplinary and supervisory authorities and actively returned illicit gains. Yu Shanfu, male, born in July 1953, former deputy general manager of Guangdong Jianlibao Group Co., Ltd. In 2000, Yu took advantage of his position to collude with others to embezzle state assets on a large scale, suspected of the crime of embezzlement. In August 2002, he fled abroad, and in September of the same year, procuratorial organs filed a case for investigation. The head of the Central Anti-Fugitive Office stated:
The return of Yu Shanfu once again demonstrates the Party Central Committee's firm determination and clear attitude to pursue fugitives and follow through to the end. It is also a vivid practice of deepening the reform of the disciplinary and supervisory system and advancing full coverage of supervision.
In the next step, we will continue to intensify efforts to pursue fugitive criminal suspects, strengthen fugitive pursuit, prevention, and asset recovery in the financial and state-owned enterprise sectors, effectively reduce the stock, curb the increment, and consolidate and develop the overwhelming victory in the fight against corruption. Former Chairman Zhang Hai Fled After Fraudulent Meritorious Service Reduced Sentence Speaking of Jianlibao Group, one must mention Zhang Hai. Zhang Hai is the former chairman and president of Guangdong Jianlibao Group. In March 2005, he was reported by Jianlibao Group for suspected false accounting, false investment, and embezzlement of Jianlibao funds. In the same month, Zhang was arrested by Foshan police and later sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crime of职务侵占罪 (embezzlement of company property) and挪用资金罪 (misappropriation of funds). △Zhang Hai Later, due to meritorious service and good behavior in prison, Zhang Hai had his sentence reduced twice: first from 10 years to 8 years, and then to 6 years. In early 2011, Zhang Hai was released early. Looking at the entire process of Zhang Hai's "fraudulent meritorious service" leading to early release, multiple departments including prisons, public security, and courts cooperated. Many cadres in the prison system and judicial institutions in Foshan, Guangzhou, Shaoguan, and the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice were deeply involved in the "fraudulent meritorious service" scheme, which ultimately reduced Zhang Hai's sentence by 9 years, revealing a shocking corruption chain. After Xu Yufa and Huang Lu operated Zhang Hai's first meritorious service, reducing his sentence from 15 years to 10 years, in September 2008, Xu Yufa again contacted Chen Songliu, a police officer at Foshan Detention Center responsible for expanding case leads, asking Chen to provide Zhang Hai with a lead for reporting meritorious service, again offering a "benefit fee" of 30,000 yuan. Based on case-solving materials, Chen issued a letter to Panyu Prison stating that Zhang Hai had reported meritorious service. Subsequently, the letter was forwarded to Wujiang Prison. Based on this, Wujiang Prison recommended a sentence reduction for Zhang Hai to the Shaoguan Intermediate People's Court. Ding Feixiong, former deputy chief judge of the Criminal Trial Division of Shaoguan Intermediate Court, accepted bribes and issued a ruling on September 3, 2010, reducing Zhang Hai's sentence by 2 years. Only half a year later, on January 25, 2011, Zhang Hai was granted a reduction of 2 years, 1 month, and 28 days by the Shaoguan Intermediate People's Court for "inventing" the utility model patent "dual rearview mirrors for automobiles," which was considered major meritorious service. He was released the next day. Investigation confirmed that the invention was obtained through collusion between Huang Lu, Kang Jie, and others who bribed personnel at Panyu Prison, and was manipulated by Guo Zichuan, with Liu Zhimin (already investigated and punished) of Panyu Prison arranging the operation. On January 30, 2014, the Guangdong Provincial Prison Administration reported that the so-called national patent was designed by an engineer from Zhang Hai's former company at his direction, and was applied for through a patent agency. Wang Chengkui was deeply involved in the Zhang Hai case. According to his testimony, from the second half of 2009 to 2011, at the request of Yang Xiao, he had contacted leaders of the Guangdong Provincial Prison Administration and Wujiang Prison regarding Zhang Hai's meetings, home visits during transfer to Wujiang Prison, assignment to prison areas, obtaining rewards, timely handling of sentence reductions, and application for major meritorious service. According to Pan Haorong, then warden of Wujiang Prison, in early 2011, Wang called to ask whether Zhang Hai's meritorious service could be approved before the Spring Festival. "I said it should normally be ruled on, and we were also rushing to discuss and report to the court. Later, Zhang Hai was released before the Spring Festival." After Zhang Hai regained his freedom during the 2011 Spring Festival, Huang Lu and Kang Jie both expressed hope that "people would forget this person." According to multiple media reports, after release, Zhang Hai first returned to his hometown in Kaifeng, Henan, to visit his grandmother who was over ninety. Later, he rested in Guangzhou to recuperate, and also went to Hong Kong to visit friends. Zhang Hai's fate took another turn two years after his release. In October 2013, the Shaoguan Intermediate People's Court revoked the two sentence reduction rulings, and the Guangdong Provincial High Court also accepted a retrial of Zhang Hai's second-instance judgment. According to the law, Zhang Hai still had 4 years, 1 month, and 28 days of remaining sentence. But before the procuratorial organs had fully grasped evidence of his involvement in the sentence reduction-related criminal activities, Zhang Hai fled. In the January 17, 2019, group discussion of the Guangdong Provincial Political Consultative Conference, a member mentioned the "Zhang Hai incident." Huang Wu, a member of the Guangdong Provincial Political Consultative Conference and deputy procurator-general of the Guangdong Provincial Procuratorate, revealed that "Zhang Hai has disappeared" and that "a new case will be filed against him, and after filing, we plan to sentence him again." Case handlers introduced that the previous capture of Huang Lu also failed at the last moment. When Huang Lu fled, he turned on his phone only half an hour before boarding the Guangzhou-Kowloon Through Train (direct train from Guangzhou to Kowloon, Hong Kong). When pursuers arrived at Guangzhou East Railway Station, the train had already left the platform, allowing him to escape capture. As for Zhang Hai himself, according to information obtained earlier by reporters from Southern Metropolis Weekly, Chinese judicial authorities have learned of his whereabouts abroad. He is currently in a European country, and Chinese judicial authorities have initiated extradition procedures for his pursuit. Founder and Three Deputy GMs All Sentenced Zhang Hai took over Jianlibao in early 2002, when he acquired 75% of its equity for 338 million yuan. Six months later, Li Jingwei, honorary chairman of the Jianlibao board and founder, along with three deputy general managers, Li Qingyuan, Yang Shiming, and Ruan Juyuan, were all summoned and placed under "shuanggui" (double designation) by the anti-corruption bureau of Sanshui City (now Sanshui District, Foshan) on suspicion of "transferring huge amounts of Jianlibao assets." Yu Shanfu fled at that time. Later, in April 2010, the Guangdong High Court entrusted the Foshan Intermediate Court to make a final judgment on the bribery and embezzlement case of several senior executives of the former Guangdong Jianlibao Group. The court sentenced defendant Yang Shiming to 18 years in prison, and Li Qingyuan and Ruan Juyuan each to 14 years. Li Jingwei was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2011 and died in April 2013. Regarding the cases of Yang Shiming, Li Qingyuan, and Ruan Juyuan, the first-instance judgment held that the three had constituted the crime of embezzlement, and Yang Shiming's behavior also constituted the crime of bribery. Yang Shiming committed multiple crimes and should be punished for multiple crimes. However, given that he voluntarily confessed to some embezzlement facts not yet known to the judicial organs, which were of the same type and more serious than the embezzlement crimes already known, he should be given a lighter punishment according to law. In addition, since the insurance policies involved in the case and other embezzlement and bribery proceeds of Yang Shiming had been seized and no actual losses were caused, the three defendants could be given a lighter punishment as appropriate. The three appealed, but the Guangdong High Court upheld the first-instance judgment, stating that the facts were clear, the evidence was sufficient, the conviction was accurate, the sentencing was appropriate, and the trial procedure was legal, and rejected the appeals. Source: Beijing Youth Daily, Southern Metropolis Weekly Compiled by: FMCG Elite Club -END-