Qiao Hong, the former general manager of Kweichow Moutai, the makers of one of the country's most well-known and expensive liqours or baijiu, was sentenced to death by Guizhou's Zunyi Intermediate People's Court on January 15.

According to the indictment, during the period when Qiao was in office (2000-2007), he accepted bribes valued at over 13.23 million yuan from 22 people. Qiao was also found to possess another 8.2 million yuan worth of property that could not be accounted for.

The death sentence will be carried out after a two year reprieve. All of Qiao's personal property has also been confiscated.

Qiao was also charged with accepting bribes worth 2.18 million yuan along with his younger brother, Qiao Jianhua. The younger Qiao was sentenced to eleven years in prison and has had 500,000 yuan of his personal property confiscated.

Suspicion about Qiao was first aroused in 2002 when he organized a trip to South Korea to watch the World Cup for 150 employees and ditributors.

He signed two contracts with the cooperating travel agency. But the total expense on one contract was five million yuan while the other was eight million. Kweichow Moutai paid eight million, but the travel agency only received five million and it was suspected that Qiao Hong simply pocketed the remaining three million yuan.

In 2007, Qiao was reported to the police by someone who had been working as a mediator between him and the travel agency.

Born in Guizhou in 1953, Qiao actually began his professional life as a civil servant and only became general manager of Kweichow Moutai in 2000.

Kweichow Moutai is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange and according to Yuan Rengui, the present chairman of the company, in 2009 it produced 230,000 liters of the potent and expensive clear spirit made from fermented sorghum. Business revenue was estimated at 12.2 billion yuan last year.

Qiao is not the only high-level executive at a larger alcohol producer to run into trouble. Early last year, Wang Xiaojin, former chairman of the Gujing Group, a state-owned Chinese liquor producer that's listed on the Shenzhen stock market, was sentended to life imprisonment after being found guilty of accepting bribes worth over ten million yuan.

 

Links and Sources
China Court: Case Details (Chinese)
Kweichow Moutai: Official Site (Chinese)