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Biz News Flash

Rio's Hu gets 10 years in jail

(Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-29 16:36

SHANGHAI - A Chinese court Monday sentenced four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto to jail terms of seven to 14 years on bribery and commercial secrets charges.

The court in Shanghai found Australian national Stern Hu and three Chinese co-workers guilty of all charges. It sentenced Hu to 10 years on bribery and stealing commercial secrets charges and gave him a fine of 1 million yuan.

The longest term of 14 years was given to Wang Yong, of which 13 years was for accepting bribes. He was also given a fine of 5.2 million yuan. Media reports last week said Wang was accused of receiving $9 million from a Chinese steel tycoon Du Shuanghua, who hoped to set his own agreements with overseas ore suppliers.

The judge told the court that the case had caused "severe" losses to China's steel-making industry and had hurt the interests of the country.

The other defendants, Ge Minqiang and Liu Caikui, were sentenced to jail terms of eight and seven years respectively and given fines of 800,000 yuan and 700,000 yuan respectively.

All of their illegal income will be confiscated, according to the court.

All had pleaded guilty in a three-day trial last week to the bribery charges, but had disputed the amounts they were alleged to have accepted.