Officials and foreign businessmen implicated in graft investigation that could affect Li Peng

Five senior power-sector officials have been jailed and several charged over receiving bribes from foreign firms in return for economic intelligence to win power-plant contracts.

Dozens of other officials at central and local level have also been implicated and are likely to be investigated.

An American-Chinese engineer, Fong Fuming, was charged in October with obtaining secret state documents and giving huge bribes to state employees. Japanese national Nagase Kunio was arrested in September for allegedly giving bribes to officials.

The cases - which all took place behind closed doors last year - have exposed rampant corruption in the power sector that has so far brought down a former vice-minister, seven director-grade officials and three departmental chiefs of the former power ministry, which later became the State Power Corporation - the mainland's electricity monopoly.

Among them, Cha Keming, former vice-minister and later a vice-general manager of the State Power Corporation, was arrested for accepting US$60,000 (HK$468,000) bribes from Nagase, the agent for Mitsui and Company, and was awaiting trial, the monthly Law and News journal reported.

Five officials convicted of accepting bribes were each jailed for 11 to 13 years. Among them, Tan Aixing, head of State Power Corporation's international co-operation department, received 12 years for accepting US$45,000 from Nagase; Wang Jianguo, 61, former head of the bidding department of the defunct state machinery industry bureau, was jailed for 13 years for accepting US$45,000 from Nagase and 180,000 yuan (HK$169,200) from several local power equipment suppliers, the Legal Daily said.