The former mayor of Zhongshan, a city in south China's Guangdong Province, stood trial Wednesday for insider trading, disclosing inside information and bribery.
Li Qihong, stood trial at Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court along with three other family members including her husband, Lin Yongan, younger brother, Li Qiming, and her younger brother's wife, Lin Xiaoyan.
According to the procurator, in May of 2007, Tan Qingzhong, the president of Zhongshan Public Utilities, planned to inject all his capital into Zhongshan Public Technology Co, Ltd and go public as a whole.
On June 11, 2007, Tan reported the project to the municipal leaders and Li Qihong was put in charge of the project.
Li Qihong said the municipal party secretary asked her to go to Beijing with Tan to report the project to China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). During the period, Tan suggested to her to buy some of the company's shares, because after the reorganization the cost of the "shares will go up."
Tan said he did this because he wanted to thank Li Qihong for helping them during their reorganization. Tan said Li told him to contact her husband, Lin Yongan.
In late June, Li Qihong asked her sister-in-law Lin Xiaoyan to buy the shares. Lin Xiaoyan said she withdrew 2.365 million yuan from Lin Yongan's account, 3.50 million yuan from Li Qiming's account and, with her own money, raised 6.77 million yuan. She later added 4 million yuan and 2.77 million yuan, respectively, to the stock accounts of her younger brother, Lin Weicheng, and her colleague, Liu Zanxiong. Later she asked her friend, surnamed Guan, to buy shares of the "public technology."
The total book gain after selling the shares was over 19 million yuan.
Li Qihong was also charged with taking bribes of over 500,000 yuan in cash.
The trial is expected to continue for two days.