Former PetroChina chairman detained for corruption: Boxun

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-03-24

Jiang Jiemin, left, fields questions from reporters. (Photo/Xinhua)

Jiang Jiemin, the former chairman of PetroChina, China's biggest oil producer, has been detained by central discipline authorities for corruption, reports Boxun, a citizen journalism website that often makes claims that are difficult to prove.

According to Boxun, a "reliable source" inside the Commission for Discipline Inspection claims that Jiang, who was also the former general manager of PetroChina's state-owned parent China National Petroleum Corporation and a former vice governor of Qinghai province, was placed under "double regulation" shortly after stepping down as PetroChina chairman last week.

Under the Communist Party's investigation ordinance, double regulation is one of several strategies disciplinary authorities may employ when conducting an investigation into a government official, and requires that the subject appear at a specified time and location to answer allegations of misconduct.

The source added that the chairman of state-owned oil and gas giant Sinopec, Fu Chengyu, and the company's general manager, Wang Tianpu, are also being targeted by authorities for corruption.

Boxun's source said Jiang has accumulated assets in excess of a billion US dollars, most of which was obtained illegally through contracting major PetroChina and CNPC projects to people in his inner circle. The most noteworthy example, the source said, is a recent multi-billion dollar project awarded to a company run by the son of Zhou Yongkang, a former Politburo Standing Committee member and chief of the Central Politics and Law Commission.

Zhou has used his connections to Jiang, Fu and Wang to rake in billions of dollars, the source said, while China's state-owned oil and gas monopolies have been providing consumers with sub-standard products at inflated prices. The companies have also been embroiled in numerous bribery and sex scandals, the most recent of which involves the alleged bribing of the daughter of a high-ranked official with male sex workers in a high-end Beijing club.

The investigations into Jiang, Fu and Wang will soon open the lid on the long-standing corruption plaguing Sinopec and PetroChina, with potentially hundreds of company officials set to be prosecuted, the source said.　

References:

Jiang Jiemin　　蔣潔敏

Fu Chengyu　　傅成玉

Wang Tianpu　　王天普

Zhou Yongkang　　周永康