A former senior executive of China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile phone operator, was last month sentenced to death with a two-year suspension for accepting millions of US dollars in bribes from industrial giant Siemens, according to a report in the Caixin Century Magazine.
The Henan provincial People's High Court upheld the conviction and sentence by the Hebi city People's Intermediate Court against China Mobile's former human resources manager Shi Wanzhong, 51, for accepting US$5.06 million from Siemens when he headed the company's Anhui branch from 2002 to late 2008. The bribes were to allow Siemens to secure telecommunications contracts for the entire province.
The court hearings and subsequent verdict had been carried out with strict non-disclosure procedures typical for cases containing 'state secrets', the report said.
Tian Qu , an agent of Siemens products in Anhui, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for acting as middleman between Siemens and Shi.
An investigation led by the US Justice Department found that Siemens had routinely used bribes to get public work contracts around the world, forcing the German industrial giant to pay a record US$1.6 billion fine to American and European authorities in 2008.
Duan Wei , a spokesman for Siemens headquarters in Beijing, yesterday said the company was unable to comment about Shi's conviction or even confirm his relationship to Siemens.
