A daily scrapbook of stories from major news media on corruption, bribery and financial crimes
AUGUST 29
BEIJING - A former top official of a city in northeast China has allegedly fled the country with millions of dollars, the BBC quoted Chinese reports as saying. Wang Guoqiang, who was party secretary of Fengcheng city in Liaoning province, left for the United States in April with his wife, the BBC quoted the People's Daily as saying. Local officials said Wang, who was being investigated for corruption, had been removed from his post, it said. Several reports cited 200m yuan ($31.5m) as the amount taken.
BUENOS AIRES - Former Argentine president Fernando de la Rua has told a court that he did not pay bribes to pass a labour reform bill in 2000, the Buenos Aires Herald reported. De La Rua, who fled the capital’s Government House in a helicopter during Argentina’s economic crisis in 2001, faces up to ten years in prison if found guilty of the bribery charges.
CHICAGO - Citing Chicago’s reputation of mobsters and corruption, Pat Quinn, governor of the U.S. state of Illinois, vetoed a plan on Tuesday to bring casinos to the city and four other areas, the Associated Press reported. Quinn squashed a proposal that supporters - including Chicago’s mayor - said could create tens of thousands of jobs and millions of dollars for the cash-strapped state, saying the plan lacked regulatory oversight and ethical standards.
ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani lawyer has filed a lawsuit to try and get to the bottom of why Pakistan’s athletes fared so poorly at the Summer Olympic Games in London, The Washington Post reported. “It was absolute failure,” the Post quoted Zafar Ullah Khan, the lawyer who filed the petition in the Supreme Court, as saying. “Nepotism, favouritism, corruption - this has destroyed our participation in the games,” Khan said.
PARIS – A confidential draft report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), obtained by the satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaine, highlights the rarity of investigations and sanctions in cases of corruption involving French companies and foreign officials, L’Express magazine has reported on its website. There have been only three convictions in 12 years for graft involving foreign civil servants, a “very low” figure given the number of companies working in sectors considered “at risk of graft”, such as arms, transport and communications, the report said.
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