Senior officer to spend 17 years in prison for awarding construction contracts to developers based bribes

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A Chinese court has sentenced a senior police officer to 17 years in prison for his part in a bribes-for-projects scandal, proceeds from which were used to buy two homes in Australia, according to court documents.

The 59-year-old police boss of Guta district of Jinzhou City in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning accepted a total of 6.8 million yuan ($A1.28m) in bribes for contracts, according to the court documents published in early March.

He used part of the money to buy two Australian properties for his family.

In 2009, Wang accepted a bribe of 2.36 million yuan from a developer to buy a property in Australia for his eldest daughter.

He accepted a second bribe of 4 million yuan from the same person in 2013 to buy another house for his second daughter, the court said. Wang doled out construction projects in return for the bribes, it said.

The use of loopholes in Australian property rules by foreign investors has left it grappling with a politically sensitive issue and looking for ways to crack down.