The four detained employees are also members of Rio Tinto's iron ore sales team in China. All three of them hold China passports except SternHu, who holds an Australian passport. The Australian Embassy in China is dealing with this matter urgently. Rio Tinto issued a statement saying that it is willing to fully cooperate with any investigation planned by relevant departments in China, hoping to get clarification on what happened. The company did not disclose the nationality or position of these employees. A spokesman for Rio Tinto said that the company had not contacted the four employees since they were detained on July 5, 2009. Hu Shitai was mainly bribed by some small steel mills in the mainland in order to get more iron ore import quotas. In the mainland, iron ore import quotas are still in the hands of several large steel enterprises.
Although Hu Shitai's reported annual salary is only 10 million dollars, sources said that his "bottom income" is far more than that. In the mainland, hundreds of millions of villas are rare at present, but Hu Shitai owns several such villas. In the past six years, Rio Tinto's commercial spies "forced China steel enterprises to pay a heavy price of more than 700 billion yuan on imported iron ore, equivalent to" 10% of Australian GDP ". According to senior insiders, although Hu Shitai is a representative of multinational companies with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars in China, he often goes to some small and medium-sized steel mills in third-and fourth-tier cities for promotion, and most of them are short-term contracts. Hu Shitai's task is to sign long-term supply relationships with domestic mainstream steel mills. An industry insider who has been in contact with Hu Shitai for a long time said that Hu Shitai gave him the impression that he was diligent and pragmatic and had a deep understanding of the China market.
At the end of 2008, Hu Shitai signed a long-term contract with Jiangxi Pinggang on behalf of Rio Tinto, which lasted for nearly ten years and was about 10 million tons. Small and medium-sized steel enterprises, including Pinggang, signed long-term cooperative contracts with mining giants privately, which was strongly opposed by China Steel Association. In addition, Hu Shitai also reached agreements with small and medium-sized steel mills such as Tangshan and Shanxi in Hebei. Dan Shang Hua, Secretary-General of China Steel Association, once told this reporter that he was firmly opposed to this kind of behavior.
The background of Hu Shitai's detention is that China Steel Association is preparing to vigorously rectify the domestic trade order. A person from China Steel Association told reporters that the iron ore trade order in China is "more chaotic than expected", and traders and steel mills are fragmented, which is also an "extremely easily manipulated market". In the view of the above-mentioned people of China Steel Association, if the detention of Hu Shitai and others is related to iron ore negotiations, then "this is only a case". "Every year, when the negotiations begin, the three major mines will immediately send people to understand the production situation of various steel mills, and the intelligence gathering activities are also quite intensive. Rio Tinto mining company
In 2007, a one-to-one research group was set up, and specialized market researchers were stationed in steel mills in every region of the mainland. "Two months before Hu Shitai was detained, a senior domestic miner suggested that reporters report to China Steel Association that there was a mole in iron ore negotiations." China Steel Association should rectify the domestic trade market, focusing on investigating the spies in the three major mines. "The doubts surrounding commercial bribery have not dissipated. Some insiders have revealed various inside information of the two iron ore markets, Xie Chang Mine and Trade Mine, which may be a hotbed of this incident. " This is definitely related to the disorder of the iron ore market, especially the bad atmosphere of buying and selling ore. I have a hunch that it will have economic problems sooner or later. "An industry insider who asked not to be named said.
Due to the sharp increase of iron ore demand in China, two unique markets have been formed, namely, Xie Chang mine and trading mine. Between the two, the price of trading mine is usually much higher than that of Xie Chang mine, and it was not until the fourth quarter when the market was depressed that it was lower than that of Xie Chang mine for the first time. "It's like setting up a casino, giving room for arbitrage." The person in charge of the above-mentioned steel enterprises explained, "Especially at the peak last year, the spot price difference of the long association price reached 100 USD/ton. A ship 17 and180,000 tons of ore, if you buy it at a long price and then sell it at a high price, how big is your intermediate profit? " To a certain extent, this has caused the "resellers" to naturally hope to obtain more long-term mines, thus achieving "performance" and "benefit". In view of the phenomenon of speculation in imported mines, it is not without trace to investigate and deal with some market disruptors.
On June 8, 2009, Shang Hua, Secretary General of China Steel Association, said in an interview that "those who participate in ore speculation will be randomly selected" and "those who violate state regulations will suffer losses". According to insiders, the arrest of the head of Shougang's iron ore business may be just the beginning. Next, in Shandong, Hebei and other important steel places, relevant investigations will also be launched.
The iron ore department of Rio Tinto Group is holding annual iron ore price negotiations with China iron and steel enterprises, and its strong dominant position makes China iron and steel enterprises feel pressure. In addition, the default of Rio Tinto and Chinalco of US$ 654.38+095 billion also disappointed China.
It is reported that the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court accepted the case according to law.
Four Rio Tinto employees, including Hu Shitai, were accused of taking advantage of their positions to seek benefits for others, and repeatedly solicited or illegally accepted huge bribes from several China iron and steel enterprises.
According to the allegations, Hu Shitai was suspected of taking bribes equivalent to 6.46 million yuan, Ge Minqiang was suspected of taking bribes equivalent to 6.94 million yuan, Liu was suspected of taking bribes equivalent to 3.78 million yuan, and Wang Yong was suspected of taking bribes equivalent to 75 million yuan, totaling 92 1.8 million yuan. In August 2009, the Shanghai Procuratorate made a decision to approve the arrest of four people, including Hu Shitai, from the Shanghai office of Rio Tinto Australia, on suspicion of infringing trade secrets and accepting bribes by non-state staff.
The suspect Hu Shitai was originally from Tianjin, China, and is now an Australian citizen. He is the chief representative of Rio Tinto's Shanghai office. The other three suspects, Liu, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong, are employees of Rio Tinto in China. After in-depth investigation, the investigation organ initially found out that Hu Shitai and other four people were suspected of obtaining the trade secrets of China's iron and steel enterprises by improper means, which violated the crime of infringing trade secrets stipulated in Article 2 19 of China's Criminal Law. At the same time, Hu Shitai and other four people were also suspected of commercial bribery, so they requested the procuratorate to approve the arrest. After examination, the procuratorate found that there was evidence to prove that Hu Shitai and other four people were suspected of the above crimes and made a decision to approve the arrest according to law.
In addition, the investigation organ has requested the procuratorial organ to examine and arrest the suspects involved in China iron and steel enterprises who provided commercial secrets to Hu Shitai and others.
20 1 1 According to the news of The New York Times in June 15, the Australian government said on June 15 that it was considering adopting a prisoner exchange treaty to let Hu Shitai, a prisoner in Rio Tinto case, leave China and serve his sentence in Australia 10.
It is reported that the notice issued by the Australian Parliament will also allow China prisoners serving their sentences in Australia to be sent back to China to continue serving their sentences. On 2011June 15, a Rio Tinto spokesman said that he would not comment on the possible prisoner exchange treaty. The court held a public hearing in accordance with the law on the case that the defendant Hu Shitai was accused of accepting bribes by non-state staff. For Hu Shitai and others accused of infringing trade secrets, because the case involved trade secrets and the injured unit applied for a closed trial, the court conducted a closed trial according to law. As Hu Shitai is an Australian, according to the relevant regulations, the Shanghai Higher People's Court informed the Australian Consulate General in Shanghai of the time and place of the trial seven days before the trial.
The people's court tried the case in strict accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, and the defendant entrusted a lawyer as a defender. During the trial, the defendants exercised their right to defense, and the defense lawyers also fully expressed their defense opinions. The court fully guaranteed the defendant's litigation rights.
During the public hearing and sentencing, the defendant's close relatives, some NPC deputies, CPPCC members, the staff of the Australian Consulate General in Shanghai and some media reporters attended the trial.
The court held that the defendants Hu Shitai, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang and Liu took advantage of their positions to seek benefits for others, accepted a huge amount of bribes, and obtained trade secrets by unfair means such as inducements, which caused particularly serious consequences, all of which constituted the crime of accepting bribes and the crime of non-state workers infringing trade secrets, so they made the above judgment according to law.