who's next? china broadens steel inquiry, page-13

Former Sinopec Chairman Gets Suspended Death Sentence (Update1)

By John Duce

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Chen Tonghai, a former chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation’s second-biggest refiner also known as Sinopec, has been given a suspended death penalty for bribery, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Chen was given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve by a court in Beijing today, Xinhua said.

Chen was removed from his post as president of China Petrochemical Corp., the parent of Sinopec, in June 2007 at a meeting attended by officials from State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration and the Communist Party, the parent company said in its online newsletter in June 2007. He subsequently resigned as Sinopec’s chairman.

Chen, a petroleum engineer by training, joined Sinopec unit Zhenhai Petroleum in 1983. He was appointed deputy mayor of the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo in 1989 and served as mayor from 1992 to 1994. He was vice minister of the State Planning Commission, the forerunner of the National Development and Reform Commission, for four years until 1998.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Duce in Hong Kongt . [email protected]

Last Updated: July 14, 2009 23:26 EDT