Railway company chairwoman given suspended death sentence for corruption, bribery

HEFEI, Feb. 6 (Chinese media) -- A local railway company chief was given a suspended death sentence for embezzling and misappropriating more than 80 million yuan (11.7 million U.S. dollars), a court in east China's Anhui Province said Friday.

Zhang Haiying, former board chairwoman and general manager of Anhui Luofu Railway Ltd., was also convicted of bribery by the Intermediate People's Court of Fuyang City on Jan. 23, a court spokesman said.

The court ordered the confiscation of all her personal property and deprived her of political rights for life.

Zhang, 49, has appealed, the court said.

She had been hailed as a heroine in the reform of China's rail system for her role in turning the Fuyang railway administration into Anhui Luofu Railway Ltd. in July 2004.

The then head of the local railway administration invested 5.4 million yuan and held a 54-percent share of the company, becoming the company's board director and general manager.

However, she embezzled 5.8 million yuan during the transition from an administrative organization into a company, and another 47million yuan after the company became operational, the court said.

She also misappropriated 20 million yuan that belonged to the company, paying her debts and those of relatives.

She arranged company staff to detain 14 million yuan when railway bureaus in Shanghai and Zhengzhou collected freight for her company, as the bureaus charged higher freight and left a differential.

She had bribed Wang Zhaoyao, former deputy chairman of the provincial committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, with 150,000 yuan for her promotion within the government before she became a company board chairman.