If everyone in China who ever took a bribe was sentenced to death, the overpopulation of the world would be handled overnight
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Former Chinese asset firm chief sentenced to death for taking bribes
By Don Jacobson
Lai Xiaomin, former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd., received a death sentence during a court appearance in Tianjin, China, on Tuesday. Photo courtesy Second Municipal Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin/UPI
Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of one of China's biggest state asset managers, on Tuesday was sentenced to death for accepting bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Lai, formerly of China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd., was sentenced to death by the Second Municipal Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin for accepting money and gifts worth about $276 million.
The Chinese court also ordered Lai to turn over his illicit gains to the state treasury and decreed that all his personal properties be confiscated.
Prosecutors said Lai leveraged his position over a decade-long span between 2008 and 2018 to "assist certain organizations and individuals with financing, project contracting, business operations and job promotion or transfer" in exchange for the kickbacks.
His actions constituted "a great loss" to the interests of the state and the people, the government said.
Lai's sentence is one of the most severe penalties handed out yet in Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive.
Zhao Zhengyong, a senior Chinese Communist Party official charged with taking bribes worth more than $100 million, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in July.
Zhao was found guilty of using his position to amass bribes in exchange for building contracts and other favors during the construction of an illegal resort in the Qinling Mountains.
Xi launched an anti-corruption campaign at the beginning of his term of office, but critics of the policy, including former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, have said he has used the campaign to strengthen his grip on power.
Of course, he does. If he convicted everyone for bribery, there would be no one left in the Communist Party.
Deutsche Bank agrees to pay $100M in penalties in bribery scandal
By Christen McCurdy
An exterior view of the twin tower headquarters of the 'Deutsche Bank' in Frankfurt Main, Germany, in 2018.
Photo by Armando Babani/EPA-EFE
Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Deutsche Bank has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors under which it will pay more than $100 million in penalties after allegedly violating anti-bribery laws.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors announced the agreement Friday.
Prosecutors allege the bank paid millions of dollars in "referral fees" to consultants in countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and China that were actually bribes to fixers that gave the bank access to foreign officials.
The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation found that the bank made about $7 million in improper payments to fixers between 2009 and 2016, and made about $35 million from the resulting deals.
Per the agreement, the bank will avoid prosecution but will "cooperate fully" with other investigations.
The bank has been repeatedly penalized in recent years by federal prosecutors and regulators for money laundering and violating international sanctions, and is the subject of a separate investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors regarding whether President Donald Trump misled or defrauded Deutsche Bank regarding his assets.
Private bankers at the bank who were responsible for lending to President Donald Trump and Jared Kushner resigned their roles in December.
Deutsche Bank has loaned Trump about $330 million in loans set to come due in 2023 and 2024.
"We take responsibility for these past actions, which took place between 2008 and 2017," said Deutsche Bank spokesman Dan Hunter. "Our thorough internal investigations, and full cooperation with the D.O.J. and S.E.C. investigations of these matters, reflect our transparency and determination to put these matters firmly in the past."
Right!!!!
Italian Professor Jailed for 10 Years Over Student Bribery Scandal
By Oisin Sweeney, Euro Weekly News
10 January 2021 @ 09:510
The disgraced academic taught at Rome's famous La Sapienza University - Image Source: Wikimedia
AN ITALIAN professor has been jailed for 10 years over a student bribery scandal in which he charged thousands of euro for passing exam grades.
Antonio Patruno taught structural theory and statistics at the architectural faculty of Rome’s famous La Sapienza university, where he allegedly charged students huge sums of cash to secure passing exam grades.
The 76-year old, now retired, carried out his bribery conspiracy between April 2010 and June 2011 and has now been sentenced to ten years in prison by a Rome court. Prosecutors proved that the disgraced academic charged his students between 300 and 4000 euro to secure passing grades in exams, as well as carrying out other illegal services according to Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper.
Students could pay large sums to have their thesis written by a team of secret ghostwriters employed by Patruno, who would also offer exclusive illicit private classes for 50 euro an hour. At least 25 students availed of his pricey and illegal services over the course of a year and the scandal came to light when one of his graduates secretly recorded the professor explaining his conspiracy.
During lengthy legal proceedings which have only recently concluded, the professor sought a reduced sentence but this was denied by a Roman court in 2014. The disgraced academic will spend the next decade behind bars.
I guess his retirement fund will do him little good in prison. But what about the students? Do they get their money back? Do they get to keep their bogus marks and subsequent degrees?
Ex-con Japarov elected President of Kyrgyzstan in landslide,
says Russia is 'main strategic partner' & pledges to fight corruption
11 Jan 2021 11:12
© Sputnik / Tabyldy Kadyrbekov
Three months ago, he was behind bars serving an 11-and-a-half-year prison term for alleged kidnapping. Now, Sadyr Japarov has been elected as President of Kyrgyzstan, securing an overwhelming victory with 79 percent of the vote.
Japarov had become the country's prime minister in October, after being sprung out of jail by protesters demanding the removal of his predecessor, Sooronbay Jeenbekov, during violent riots. The street movement was formed after Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary elections on October 4, when some of the country's opposition parties refused to accept the result. As well as breaking Japarov out of prison, demonstrators also stormed the White House, Kyrgyzstan's presidential residence.
Once out of jail, he was quickly acquitted and rapidly elected by parliament as Interim Prime Minister. Then, once Jeenbekov resigned, Japarov was promoted to Acting President, after the country's speaker of the parliament refused to accept the post.
Along with affording him his election victory, the country also voted in favor of an overhaul of government, with 81 percent opting to move away from parliamentary democracy and to revert to Kyrgyzstan's old presidential system. Once implemented, the balance of power will shift away from the country's legislature and towards the executive branch, a more common system in the former Soviet bloc of countries.
"During the past 30 years, corruption has taken root in every sphere of our lives. But from now on, we won't allow it to continue that way," Japarov has vowed.
His landslide blew away all other candidates, with runner-up Adakhan Madumarov receiving just 6.7 percent.
Bishkek's political system has seen constant changes in the last two decades, with three leaders toppled by protest since 2005. Elsewhere in Central Asia, politics is comparatively less dramatic, with states often keeping the same leader for a decade or more.
In his acceptance speech, Japarov called Russia his country's "main strategic partner," noting that the two nations were both part of the Soviet Union for 70 years, and "remained strategic partners in the last 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union."
The sentiment was shared by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who congratulated Japarov, noting that he hopes that Moscow and Bishkek continue to build on their ties.
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