CHINA: RAILWAY OFFICIAL GETS DEATH PENALTY

A former senior official of the Hohhot railway bureau in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has been given a death penalty with two years' reprieve for accepting bribes of more than 130 million yuan ($21.48 million), it was revealed.
The Hengshui Intermediate People's Court in Hebei Province sentenced Ma Junfei, former deputy head of Hohhot railway bureau, on December 26, according to a written judgment disclosed by an insider to the Global Times.
Ma, 48, had accepted about 75 million yuan in bribes and another 63 million yuan from unidentified sources since becoming the bureau's deputy head in charge of transport in August 2009, the verdict said.
Wang Hongmei, a director of the Yihe Energy Group in Inner Mongolia had bribed Ma 14 times, a total 8.8 million yuan.
At least 40 mining or electric power companies from Inner Mongolia and other provinces bribed Ma tens of thousands to millions of yuan, according to the judgment.
An insider close to Ma told the China Business News that Ma filled his two houses in Hohhot and Beijing with money and gold.
The railway plays an important role in transporting coal and other goods in the autonomous region, a major coal-producing area of the country.