What’s new: Xiao Yi, a former senior political advisor in Jiangxi province, has pleaded guilty for receiving bribes worth more than 125 million yuan ($18 million) and violating cryptocurrency mining rules, according to the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
Xiao, 60, is accused of taking advantage of his positions, including vice chairman of the Jiangxi’s People’s Political Consultative Conference, to help others secure construction project contracts and career promotions between 2008 and 2021, the Hangzhou court said in a statement published late Thursday.
The prosecutors also said Xiao helped businesses that are engaged in cryptocurrency mining get fiscal subsidies, financial support, and electricity supply from 2017 to 2021, while serving as party chief of Fuzhou, a city in Jiangxi.
The court said it will announce Xiao’s sentence at a later date.
The background: Xiao was expelled from the Communist Party and removed from public office in November 2021, according to the country’s top anti-graft authorities. He was placed under official investigation in May 2021, just 46 days after he left his position as Fuzhou’s party chief.
Prior to his downfall, Xiao spent some 30 years working in his home province of Jiangxi. During his tenure in Fuzhou, he made a name for himself promoting the city’s digital economy. But some mega projects allegedly served as fronts for cryptocurrency mining.
Mining or use of any cryptocurrency, apart from the central bank’s digital yuan, is banned in China. The country’s crackdown on cryptocurrency in recent years has focused on eliminating speculation, preventing fraud and money laundering, and choking off a booming domestic crypto mining industry that was jeopardizing efforts to cut power consumption and curb pollution.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
