Cao Guangjing, the former "Three Gorges Marshal" and former vice governor of Hubei Province, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the First Instance of Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court of Jiangsu Province today (May 24) after his 60th birthday in a detention center. He was charged with two crimes of bribery and disclosure of inside information: 216 million bribes during his 18 years in office; During his tenure as Vice Governor of Hubei Province, he led the rescue and restructuring of listed companies and disclosed the inside information to others, which led others to make profits of more than 10.42 million yuan from buying and selling stocks.
Cao Guangjing has worked in the construction and development field of the Three Gorges Project for 29 years, from a trainee engineer in the preparation office, all the way an official, to the chairman of the board of directors and secretary of the party group of China Three Gorges Corporation. In 2014, he was transferred as a member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Governor of Hubei Provincial People's Government. After eight years of service, he was demoted in February 2022.
Cao Guangjing, former vice governor of Hubei Province. The figure is the data figure
He was once a "Three Gorges Marshal" and was found out by the Central Committee during his term of office that "the immigration funds were misappropriated"
According to public data, Cao Guangjing, born in Zouping, Shandong Province in March 1964, joined the Communist Party of China in June 1991 and started working in August 1985. He is a doctor of management, a professor level senior engineer and enjoys the special government allowance of the State Council.
Cao Guangjing's career began with the Three Gorges Project. In 1985, he joined the Preparatory Office of the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation after graduating from university, and has worked in the field of the Three Gorges Project for 29 years since then.
In 2002, after 17 years of hard work, Cao Guangjing was promoted to the post of Deputy General Manager of the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation. During this period, he studied management and engineering as an on-the-job postgraduate in the School of Architecture and Engineering of Tianjin University, and received a doctor's degree in management. According to the court's judgment, after two years as Vice President, Cao Guangjing began to take bribes in 2004. Since then, he has amassed more money and became greedy at the same time until he was investigated.
After eight years as Deputy General Manager, Cao Guangjing, 46 years old, became the Chairman and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of China Three Gorges Corporation in January 2010, becoming the "top leader" of the Three Gorges Corporation and known as the "Three Gorges Young Marshal".
When Cao Guangjing took office, Three Gorges Group was repeatedly disclosed to have financial problems such as "illegal fund management", "misappropriation of migrant funds", and "imperfect consumption management system". On October 29, 2013, the ninth inspection team of the second round of central inspection entered the Three Gorges Group for a two month inspection. In February 2014, the Central Inspection Group reported that some leaders' relatives and friends had interfered in the construction of the project, and some bidding operations were conducted in a dark box. Subcontracting of construction projects was common; Some leaders occupy multiple houses in violation of regulations; The office space is too large, the purchase of official vehicles exceeds the standard, and the official consumption is extravagant and wasteful; Some leaders work with illness, and some key posts do not communicate for a long time.
A month later, in March 2014, Cao Guangjing was removed from the board of directors and secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Three Gorges Corporation. Later, he became a member of the Party Leadership Group of Hubei Provincial Government, and two months later, he took the post of Vice Governor.
Cao Guangjing was announced to be dismissed by officials on the evening of February 24, 2022, after serving as the vice governor of Hubei Province for eight years.
Cao Guangjing was suddenly investigated. Cao Guangjing also attended the meeting of the Network Security and Informatization Committee of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee the day before being notified of his dismissal.
On May 24, the first instance of the Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court of Jiangsu Province publicly sentenced Cao Guangjing, a former member of the Party Leadership Group and vice governor of Hubei Provincial People's Government, to take bribes and disclose insider information.
18 years of corruption, more than 200 million bribes, sentenced to life in the first instance
In September 2022, Cao Guangjing was expelled from the Party and public office, and then he was arrested and prosecuted.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection reported on his punishment that Cao Guangjing made friends with "political cheats" and engaged in political speculation; Engage in power and money trading; Illegal intervention and interference in judicial activities; Greed expansion, both want to be an official and get rich, alienate the power in hand into a tool for personal gain, use the position to help others in enterprise management, project contracting and other aspects, and illegally accept huge amounts of property.
On October 26, 2023, Cao Guangjing was put on trial in Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court. Today, the verdict of the first instance of the case was pronounced.
The Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court found that from 2004 to 2022, the defendant Cao Guangjing took advantage of his position as Deputy General Manager of China Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, Deputy General Manager and Chairman of China Three Gorges Group Corporation, and Deputy Governor of Hubei Province, as well as the convenient conditions for the formation of his position or position, to provide relevant units and individuals with access to enterprise operation, project contracting We provided assistance in project development and other matters, and illegally received property from the above units and individuals, amounting to more than 216 million yuan. Cao Guangjing led the rescue and restructuring of the holding company of a listed company in Hubei Province during his tenure as Vice Governor of Hubei Province. In January 2021, Cao Guangjing disclosed the inside information of the rescue and restructuring to others, causing others to buy the shares of the listed company before the disclosure of the inside information, and then sold the shares to gain more than 10.42 million yuan.
The Xuzhou Intermediate People's Court held that the defendant Cao Guangjing's behavior constituted the crime of accepting bribes and leaking inside information. The amount of bribes accepted was particularly huge, and the circumstances of leaking inside information were particularly serious, so they should be punished according to law. In view of the circumstances of Cao Guangjing's voluntary surrender, some bribery crimes were attempted, he pleaded guilty and repented, actively returned the stolen money and goods, and all the fruits have been recovered, so he can be given a lighter punishment according to law.
The Intermediate People's Court of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, in the first instance, sentenced the defendant Cao Guangjing to life imprisonment for the crime of accepting bribes, deprived him of his political rights for life, and also confiscated all his personal property. It sentenced him to six years of fixed-term imprisonment for the crime of disclosing inside information, and fined him 12 million yuan. It decided to execute life imprisonment, deprive him of his political rights for life, and confiscate all his personal property; The seized stolen money, goods and fruits shall be recovered according to law and turned over to the state treasury.
Cao Guangjing was sentenced to life imprisonment. The figure is the data figure
Led the rescue and restructuring of listed companies and disclosed insider information
So, which listed company is Cao Guangjing leaking inside information?
According to the public data, Cao Guangjing, the then vice governor of Hubei, was responsible for industry, transportation, state-owned assets supervision, provincial investment and financing platforms, and assisted in safe production, emergency management, and fire rescue when he was accused of disclosing inside information. In charge of the Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, the Provincial Department of Transportation, the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the provincial government, the Secretariat of the Mechanical and Automotive, Petrochemical, Light Industry, Textile, Metallurgy, Building Materials Industry Association, and assist in the provincial emergency department.
According to the Economic Observer, Cao Guangjing leaked the inside information of Hubei Shuanghuan Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shuanghuan Technology).
Shuanghuan Technology Co., Ltd., located in Yingcheng, Xiaogan, Hubei Province, is the earliest large-scale soda production enterprise in New China. It was listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in April 1997 and is a state-owned holding listed company. However, since 2000, Hubei Double Ring Road has been in trouble for several times. In 2018, Shuanghuan Technology was reduced to ST shares due to consecutive losses and faced delisting. At that time, Yihua Group, the largest shareholder of Hubei Shuanghuan, was in deep trouble.
At the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, Cao Guangjing, the vice governor in charge of state-owned assets in Hubei Province, took the lead in leading the rescue and restructuring of Double Ring Technology. The Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Provincial Government's State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, the Provincial Department of Ecological Environment, Hubei Securities Regulatory Bureau and other departments jointly implemented the policy to stabilize the debt risk and support the double ring technological transformation, which was specifically rescued by Hongtai Group.
On March 9, 2021, * ST Shuanghuan under Shuanghuan Group announced that Hubei Yihua Group, the indirect controlling shareholder of the company, and Hubei Hongtai Group signed the "Hubei Shuanghuan Chemical Group Co., Ltd. Rescue and Restructuring Agreement". After certain conditions are met, Hongtai Group will obtain the controlling right of Shuanghuan Group through equity transfer, thus becoming the indirect controlling shareholder of the company.
Yihua Group is a holding enterprise of the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Yichang City, Hubei Province, while Hongtai Group is subordinate to the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hubei Province. The implementation of the above "rescue and restructuring agreement" will transform Shuanghuan Technology from an enterprise controlled by the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Yichang City to an enterprise controlled by the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hubei Province. Affected by this positive effect, the stock price of Shuanghuan Technology has soared continuously.
It is worth noting that the month after Cao Guangjing announced the investigation, Fu Limin, then the secretary of the Party Committee of the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hubei Province, was investigated. He served as the secretary and director of the Party Committee of the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hubei Province from November 2018 to September 2021. In September 2022, the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that Fu Limin had been expelled from the Party and public office, and that he had acted arbitrarily and made illegal decisions in the process of restructuring state-owned enterprises, resulting in huge losses of public property and the risk of major losses of state-owned assets.
(Source: website of the Supreme People's Court, website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission, and economic observation network)
Interview: Liang Jianzhong, a reporter from Nandu
