Former Sinochem GM jailed 12 years for graft

Cai Xiyou was charged with abusing his position to amass illegal gains worth $10.8 million.
Cai Xiyou was charged with abusing his position to amass illegal gains worth $10.8 million.

BEIJING • A Chinese court sentenced the former general manager of Sinochem Group to 12 years in prison for graft, official media reported yesterday, the latest state-owned enterprise executive to be caught up in a sweeping crackdown on corruption in China.

Cai Xiyou, who headed the Chinese energy and chemicals conglomerate, was charged with abusing his position to amass ill-gotten gains worth 53.7 million yuan (S$10.8 million), the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The court in China's eastern Shandong province also slapped a three million yuan fine on Cai on top of the prison sentence.

He pleaded guilty to the charges and said he would not appeal, Xinhua said.

A 30-year oil industry veteran, Cai was appointed to the top job at Sinochem in 2014 after a long career at China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec), where he served as a Communist Party committee member and senior vice-president.

He was put under investigation in 2016.

Wang Yongchun, a deputy general manager at China's biggest oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation, was jailed for 20 years for graft in 2015.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 27, 2018, with the headline Former Sinochem GM jailed 12 years for graft. Subscribe