Four employees of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto were charged with bribery and stealing trade secrets, a court statement said yesterday.
The No 1 branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate laid the charges against Australian citizen Stern Hu, the former head of Rio Tinto's Shanghai office, and three local employees, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang and Liu Caikui.
A statement from the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court said prosecutors accused the four of "taking advantage of their position to seek profit for others, and asking for, or illegally accepting, huge amounts of money from Chinese steel enterprises."
It said they lured the Chinese enterprises' heads with bribes or other illegal means to obtain the steel companies' commercial secrets on multiple occasions, causing "extremely serious consequences" for the companies.
Hu was detained in July last year along with his three Chinese colleagues on suspicion of stealing State secrets. The police concluded their investigation and sent it to prosecutors on Jan 11.
Media reports last year said the employees were accused of paying bribes to obtain information on China's negotiating stance. Rio has denied its employees paid bribes.
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Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Jan 12 China has dealt with the case according to the Chinese law and the diplomatic agreements between China and Australia.
Last week, the mining giant appointed Ian Bauert as its new China operations chief. Bauert set up the company's first China office more than 25 years ago and speaks fluent Chinese.
The company's move was seen as an effort to improve relations with its largest customer, after they cooled with the arrest of Hu and with Rio Tinto's spurning of Chinalco's $19.5-billion investment in Australia last year.
