Chinese dairy giant Yili says disgraced former boss sheltered by public officials
- Company publishes allegations online after the sentencing of two writers for claiming that group’s serving chief involved in corruption
State-owned Chinese dairy company Yili Group publicly accused its former president, Zheng Junhuai, of embezzling public funds and defaming the company on Wednesday, saying he was protected for more than a decade by his close ties to government officials.
The company said it submitted a report on Tuesday to the Central Leading Group for Inspection Work appealing “for justice”.
Yili made the claims in a statement published on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, as well as on its official website immediately after a journalist and a blogger were sentenced in Hohhot, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, for suggesting in March that Yili’s current president, Pan Gang, was involved in corruption and had been taken away by the authorities. Yili had denied these claims at the time, calling them rumours.
In the statement, Yili accused Zheng of being behind a series of “defamation attacks” spanning a decade. It claimed the attacks started after Zheng and his unnamed protector embezzled 240 million yuan (US$34.5 million) in public funds.
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In 2004, Zheng and four other company managers were arrested. Two years later, Zheng was sentenced to six years in prison for embezzling 16.5 million yuan. Yili’s statement claims that because of the “protection” he enjoyed, the malpractice went mostly overlooked. It also claimed that because of Zheng’s connections, he was not held in prison and went home whenever he wanted during his sentence.
Yili claims that because of his sudden arrest, Zheng was unable to transfer most of the embezzled funds to his accounts and for more than 10 years, the company claims, Zheng and some officials from Inner Mongolia pressured Yili’s management, asking them to transfer the money.
