Billionaire Wang Wenxiang stood trial yesterday in Harbin for hiring two people to murder a former business partner.
Authorities said Wang, from Heilongjiang province, contracted the killing to his personal secretary and a migrant worker.
The pair, secretary Bai Peng and young migrant worker Yu Yi, were caught on videotape strangling the man and putting him in a trunk on May 18.
The victim, Zhong Yishi, ran a construction company that began doing business with Wang 10 years ago.
The two had a falling out over defaulted payments for a project that ended up in court in 2004.
In December last year, Zhong brought another lawsuit against Wang on other issues related to the construction properties, which motivated Wang to plan the kidnapping and murder.
Wang, 49, graduated from Tsinghua University, a top university in China, and was the political consultative conference member of Heilongjiang province. His Xinheng Corporation was involved in a range of industries including real estate, power, wholesale and retail. According to its website, the fixed assets of the company reached over 1 billion yuan ($146 million).
According to Zhong's wife, the motivation for the murder was caused by the business conflicts between the victim and the prime suspect.
She said Wang held a grudge against her husband after being ordered by the People's Superior Court of Heilongjiang to pay Zhong 10 million yuan in compensation.
Court heard yesterday that Bai hired Yu to assist him in the killing, while Wang was responsible for covering the fees.
A surveillance camera in an underground car garage near where Zhong lived recorded the killing on the night of May 18. Yu put a rope around Zhong's neck while Bai sealed Zhong's mouth and tied up his hands with tape.
They put the victim into the trunk of the car and drove to an abandoned brick kiln where they burned the body and took 4,000 yuan they found on the body.
Both Bai and Yu admitted after being arrested that they killed the victim purely for money. However, they had only received around 3,000 yuan when they were apprehended by police.
The Intermediate People's Court in Harbin will announce the verdict at a later date.
