2011: Luo Yaping, “land granny”

On this date in 2011, China’s “land granny” was executed for plundering 145 million yuan ($23 million) from China’s swelling bubble in real estate.

Luo Yaping was head of a land sub-bureau in a district of Fushun, a city in northeast China — not an especially high position — and yet she was able to use her power over land development and compensation to accumulate a fortune in bribes and embezzled compensation,” according to Reuters.

Though anti-corruption investigators tarred her racket as “the lowest in class, biggest in sum and evilest in tactics,” neither the person nor her boodle were very big game at all for China’s bananas real estate market. Chinese conglomerates write budget lines for routine bribery far beyond what Luo feathered her nest with.

China’s new fortunes chasing after property — and vice versa — have given the country a wild kaleidoscope: astronomical urban rents; colossal speculative ghost cities awaiting tenants who might never arrive; and underhanded deals among developers and government officials to split up the spoils. Average housing prices across the country tripled from 2005 to 2009.....

Verdicts in Shanghai Building Collapse

A Shanghai court convicted six people Thursday in connection with the bizarre collapse of a nearly completed residential building in the city last June, sentencing them to terms ranging from three to five years on charges of causing a criminal major accident, local media reported.

At dawn on June 27, the 13-story "Building No. 7," part of the Lotus Riverside compound in Shanghais Minhang district, fell over on its side, practically intact, killing a construction worker who was trapped inside. The accident spurred concerns over shoddy construction practices and possible corruption, as well as protests among buyers of apartments in the 11-building development. Eight people were arrested; Thursdays verdicts represent the first batch of convictions.

Qin Yonglin, head of the Lotus Riverside complex for the developer, Shanghai Meidu Property Development Co., and Zhang Yaojie, chairman of the construction company that built the development, each received five-year sentences, according the Web site of the state-run Xinmin News. Zhangs brother, Zhang Yaoxiong, a subcontractor who was in charge of the digging work on the underground garage, was sentenced to four years, and Qiao Lie, an engineer and project manager for Lotus Riverside, received a three-year sentence. Construction workers Xia Jiangang and Lu Weiying were sentenced to four years and three years, respectively.

According to the indictment, Qin followed orders from his boss, Meidu Chairman Zhang Zhiqin, to hire Zhang Yaoxiong (no relation to Zhang Zhiqin) to excavate an underground garage under the building that later collapsed, according to the China Daily. Prosecutors said that they ordered Zhang Yaoxiong to leave the excavated soil on a plot of land next to the building. The pile-up of soil, combined with the gaping hole under the building, weakened the buildings foundations and resulted in the collapse.

Zhang Yaojie and the other defendants were accused of lax supervision of the project and failing to stop the developer from engaging in unsafe construction practices.

After reading out the guilty verdicts, the judge said the six had violated safety management regulations and failed to fulfill their obligations, ultimately causing the collapse of the building, which in addition to the one death resulted in economic losses exceeding 19 million yuan (around $2.8 million).

Developer Zhang Zhiqin and Que Jingde, a director on Meidus board with ties to the Minhang district government, are still awaiting trial.

--Sky Canaves

Note that the time from collapse to verdict was about a year. We couldn't register all of the lawyers that wanted a part of the action, in that same year.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.