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| Kweichow Moutai is the world's most valuable spirits company. (File photo by=AFP/Jessica Yang) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] BEIJING: The former head of Chinese liquor firm Kweichow Moutai, the world's most valuable spirits company, has been jailed for life for taking more than US$17 million in bribes. Yuan Renguo, 64, was found guilty of accepting cash and properties worth more than 112.9 million yuan (US$17.5 million) while working at Kweichow Moutai between 1994 and 2018, according to a court statement on Thursday (Sept 23), AFP reported.
The court stripped Yuan, a former Communist Party cadre and local government advisory group member, of his political rights and confiscated his personal property. Yang is the latest high-profile businessman and Communist Party figure to fall in President Xi Jinping's sweeping anti-corruption campaign. He’s dismissed from public office and expelled from the party on corruption allegations in May 2019. An investigation by the party's graft buster found that Yuan had engaged in "family-style corruption" and facilitated the illegal sale of Moutai for unscrupulous dealers.
Meanwhile, Xi's anti-corruption campaign, launched in 2012, has hit baijiu sales particularly hard as bottles of premium brands like Moutai had become a popular gift for charming or bribing Communist Party officials. The company's share price remained unaffected by the ruling and stood at 1,652 yuan, up 0.92 percent in Thursday morning trade.
