Ousted China Formula One boss in graft trial
18/09/2007 |
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The former boss of China's Formula One Grand Prix has gone on trial for graft, state media reported on Tuesday, opening a likely series of corruption hearings focused on the ousted Communist Party chief of Shanghai.
Yu Zhifei, the former general manager of Shanghai International Circuit Co. that hosts the country's high-profile Formula One race, was accused of embezzling 1.05 million yuan ($140,000), the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Yu was among the 10 or so officials and businessmen felled in China's financial hub along with the city's Communist Party secretary, Chen Liangyu, who is also likely to face trial over a web of corruption centred on abuses of social security funds.
Sources and a Hong Kong newspaper controlled by the mainland have recently said that some of them could stand trial soon as a prelude to Chen's trial.
With his grip on Shanghai, Chen had bucked at the authority of President Hu Jintao, who is set to gain another five years as national Party chief and consolidate his authority at a congress opening in mid-October.
Chen worked with Yu when the two were local officials in Shanghai's Huangpu district. Yu stood trial on Monday in the eastern city of Hefei and no verdict was announced, Xinhua said.
Yu, 54, is a flamboyant figure who moved from running a small manufacturing company to controlling the Shanghai Shenhua soccer club before he took the motor racing job. He brought Manchester United to Shanghai to play against his club in 1999.
Prosecutors claim he embezzled 800,000 yuan ($106,400) from the Shenhua club in 1997 to help pay for a house.
He took another 250,000 yuan in 1999 and "claimed the money was spent on public welfare advertisements during the year's Shanghai chrysanthemum show", Xinhua said.
The $350 million Shanghai track, which can hold 200,000 people, hosted China's first F1 Grand Prix in September 2004 and also hosts world championship motorcycling. ($1 = 7.52 yuan)
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
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