Former chief took bribes of US$735,000
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The value of a property and a painting, which Wen Qiang, former deputy police chief of Chongqing municipality, allegedly accepted in bribes is more than 5 million yuan ($735,000), local authorities said on Friday.
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Wen Qiang, former deputy police chief of Chongqing. |
Wen's five-day trial ended early last month. The former cop is accused of protecting gangs, rape and accepting bribes.
Wen allegedly took more than 15 million yuan in bribes to turn a blind eye toward gang crimes in the municipality, and possessed "huge amounts of unexplained assets".
The evaluation of a villa and a painting was key to determining the total value of Wen's bribe money.
Wen once said in court that his family's assets were "over valued" or "unreasonably calculated" and suggested inflation be taken into account.
His villa, located at Xiannv Mountain, was certified at a price of 2 million yuan, which is far cheaper than 30 million yuan speculated earlier by local media.
The painting found in his villa proved to be one of famous artists Zhang Daqian's (1899-1983) authentic works, valued at 3.64 million yuan.
"Our price authentication standard strictly refers to the price provisions of national laws. The authentication methods differ in terms of different properties," said Yuan Lu, head of Chongqing municipal price bureau.
He explained that the criteria of most artworks, accessories, wines and teas refer to the market price while the value of properties depends on the cost of construction and other factors.
Bribes allegedly accepted by Wen include 181 bottles of vintage wine, 80 pieces of jewelry and watches, 36 fine works of art, nine cultural relics and 69 rolls of paintings - all recovered from 16 properties owned by his family, according to prosecutors.
"Take an example of the examination of the price of the villa. We made references to the expenses of the labor, construction, decoration and land premium when the house was built instead of evaluating the price according to the market value," Yuan said when explaining why it took such a long time to process the authentication.
In addition, the top cultural relic experts from Beijing were also invited to participate in the procedure in order to accurately authenticate Zhang Daqian's painting, he said.
"We have to be very cautious with the authentication of each item because their values will affect the penalty," Yuan said.
Yuan said his bureau had authenticated about 8,189 items, with a total value of 123 million yuan, during the city's crackdown on gang crimes.
The items included insurance, stocks, overseas property investments, wines, accessories, artworks and culture relics.
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