Official accused of wanting 60m yuan

Ye Shuyang, a top official in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, dreamed of accumulating 60 million yuan ($8.8 million). He wanted to give 20 million to his son, 20 million to his daughter and son-in-law, and then fund his retirement with an extra 20 million for himself.

However, Ye's dream is likely to always remain a dream. The former director of the Shaoguan Public Security Bureau will soon stand trial at Heyuan Intermediate People's Court for allegedly accepting 30 million yuan in bribes over two decades.

The 54-year-old, who was detained in August 2008, still has not revealed how he came to acquire several properties worth 16 million yuan.

Local media quoted a prosecutor as saying Ye had set a goal of accumulating 60 million yuan before he retired.

In addition to accepting bribes from local contractors and subordinate officers, Ye acted as a "protective umbrella for local criminal gangs and secret societies", an investigation revealed.

In 2006, Ye allegedly helped a suspected drug trafficker surnamed Sun obtain a guarantor for a loan and also get bail as he waited for trial in a major cross-border drug smuggling case.

It is alleged that Ye accepted more than HK$8 million in bribes after Sun was released from prison.

Chen Tianxiang, a professor from the Management School of Politics and Public Affairs at Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said governments at all levels should try to prevent the centralization of power by top officials in order to keep corruption in check.

"Meanwhile, a concrete and effective system to supervise senior Party and government officials should be introduced to fight corruption," Chen told China Daily.

Chen said senior officials should annually report their assets and that of their families.

Zheng Fenming, director of the Scientific Development and Public Policy Center at the Guangdong Academy of Social Science, said a transparent and effective system should be established to expand supervision of Party and government officials.

According to Xu Dejun, a lawyer from the Zhongyida Law Office, Ye should face harsh punishment if convicted due to the amount of money involved.

"A person should be sentenced to death if he or she has taken bribes valued at more than 100,000 yuan, according to relevant Chinese laws," Xu said.

"But quite a few officials have escaped the death penalty in recent years."

Following Ye's detention, more than 100 officials were found linked to his alleged activities over a period of two decades.

Ye, who was the Party secretary of Guangdong's Xinfeng county before he was promoted to the Shaoguan Public Security Bureau, was detained after authorities found his son-in-law had wired a large sum of money to an overseas bank in July 2008.