Former Sinopec boss expelled from party, faces indictment

 

 

BEIJING (AP) -- The former general manager of China's largest oil refiner was stripped of membership in the ruling Communist Party and handed over to prosecutors after an internal investigation found evidence of corruption, the party's disciplinary body said Friday.

Wang Tianpu, who once led Sinopec, violated the party's political rules and disciplines by bribing others to advance his career, the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said.

It said he also used his position to seek benefits for relatives, took bribes, used public funds improperly to host banquets and illegally took possession of public goods,

Wang was put under investigation in April. Earlier, he was penalized over a November 2013 pipeline explosion that killed 62 people in the eastern port city of Qingdao.

China's state-dominated energy industry has come under special scrutiny amid President Xi Jinping's wide-ranging anti-graft crackdown.

Those arrested include Jiang Jiemin, the former head of China's biggest petroleum company CNPC and the party's former security chief, Zhou Yongkang, who made the energy industry his power base