Ex-Energy Official Gets Suspended Death Sentence in Graft Case

(Beijing) — A former official at China's energy regulator who had hidden more than 200 million yuan ($29.7 million) in cash at his home was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery, official media reported.

The Baoding City Intermediate People's Court in Hebei province said on Monday that Wei Pengyuan, former deputy director of the Coal Department at the National Energy Administration (NEA), received more than 211 million yuan ($31.3 million) in cash bribes plus possessions he could not account for, according to People's Daily.

Wei will be ineligible for parole or a reduced sentence if his death sentence is commuted to life in prison because his wrongdoing "was particularly grave and has led to extremely serious losses to the state and the people," the court said.

Wei was put under investigation in May 2014. Later he was found to have stashed more than 200 million yuan worth of Chinese and foreign currencies at his home, the largest pile of dirty cash found in a single case since the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. Four of the 16 cash-counting machines that investigators brought to his property to tally the bank notes burned out in the process.

Wei had held various positions at coal divisions within the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the NEA. He "illegally accepted wealth and goods from others" from 2000 to 2014 for helping businesses to obtain approval for coal-mining projects and to secure safety operation licenses, the court said.

President Xi Jinping launched a sweeping nationwide anti-corruption campaign that has netted both "tigers and flies," referring to officials of both high and low rank respectively, since he came to power in late 2012.

Since then, more than 100,000 civil servants, military officials and executives at state-owned enterprises have been indicted for corruption. The most high-profile case involves Zhou Yongkang, the nation's former top domestic security official and ex-overseer of the national oil industry. He was sentenced to life in prison last year for accepting bribes of about 130 million yuan, abuse of power, and the intentional disclosure of state secrets.

Contact reporter Chen Na (nachen@caixin.com); editor Calum Gordon (calum@caixin.com)