Yu Zhifei, former chief of the Shanghai International Circuit and Shanghai Shenhua Football Club, was jailed today for four years for embezzling 1.05 million yuan (US$14.39 million), a court in eastern China's Anhui Province ruled today.
Yu, 54, former general manager of the Shanghai circuit that hosts Formula One and Moto Grand Prix races and board chairman of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club, stood trial on September 18 at the Intermediate People's Court in Wuhu City, in east China's Anhui Province.
Yu said he would decide whether to appeal the verdict after talks with his attorneys, Sina.com reported today.
The Shanghai native was put under investigation in October, 2006, on suspicion of misappropriating company funds to pay personal debts and buy a house.
Investigators said Yu had embezzled 800,000 yuan from the Shanghai Shenhua Football Club in 1997 to pay his debts, owed to a Shanghai developer for a 2.43-million-yuan house. On the company's account book, the amount was allegedly spent on "consultation service fees."
He appropriated another 250,000 yuan in 1999 for the same purpose, but claimed the money was spent on "public welfare advertisements" during that year's Shanghai chrysanthemum show.
Yu was detained in January last year and his arrest was approved by the Anhui Provincial People's Procuratorate in February.
He was expelled from the Communist Party of China in May last year for his involvement in Shanghai's pension-fund scandal.
Yu was ordered to assist an investigation into the pension-fund scandal in October, 2006.
The pension-fund investigation implicated a dozen senior government officials and corporate executives in the city. Former Party secretary Chen Liangyu was dismissed over the scandal in September, 2006.
Chen is now in custody and is likely to face criminal charges.
Yu is well known for leading Shenhua to be the champion of China's Top League in 1995. He was also a major force in bringing the elite motor racing sport to China, which held its first F1 race in 2004.
(Shanghai Daily January 3, 2008)
