Yesterday, reporters learned that Guo Wen, former Party branch secretary of Guaicun Central Village in Wangzuo Township, Fengtai District, Beijing, and Rong Jun, former deputy village head of Shaguo Village, were sentenced to 15 and 13 years in prison respectively for allegedly colluding with an appraisal company manager during the demolition process to embezzle a total of more than 9.97 million yuan in state demolition compensation.

The court judgment shows that in 2007, Beijing Capital Highway Development Group Co., Ltd. was responsible for the Fengtai District section of the West Sixth Ring Road project in Beijing, and Guaicun Central Village in Wangzuo Township, Fengtai District, was within the demolition area. Guo Wen, then Party branch secretary and village head of Guaicun Central Village in Wangzuo Township, Fengtai District, and Rong Jun, deputy village head of Shaguo Village, conspired to take advantage of Guo Wen's position facilitating the Fengtai District People's Government's management and distribution of land acquisition and demolition compensation funds for the West Sixth Ring Road construction, and used the "Beijing Appraisal Conditions Registration Form" provided by Zha Xilin (handled in a separate case), general manager of Beijing Kaiyuan Hengji Real Estate and Land Appraisal Co., Ltd., which was responsible for providing appraisal services for land acquisition and demolition in the Fengtai District section of the West Sixth Ring Road, to falsely report the number of walnut trees in Guaicun Central Village and, by forging demolition compensation agreements, fraudulently obtain a total of more than 9.978 million yuan in demolition compensation.

On January 29, 2012, Guo Wen was released after serving a one-year and two-month sentence for intentional injury. In February of the same year, Rong Jun turned himself in to the anti-corruption bureau. Subsequently, Guo Wen was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement.

In December 2012, the court sentenced Guo Wen, finding that during his tenure as village Party branch secretary in 2007, he took advantage of his position facilitating the Fengtai District Government's management and distribution of land acquisition and demolition compensation funds for the West Sixth Ring Road construction to forge demolition compensation agreements and fraudulently obtain 3.8 million yuan in demolition compensation, and sentenced him to nine years in prison for embezzlement. However, this was not Guo Wen's final punishment. Rong Jun's surrender confirmed the fraud involving nearly 10 million yuan in demolition compensation in total.

After trial, the court of first instance sentenced Rong Jun to 13 years in prison for embezzlement, and sentenced Guo Wen to 15 years after combining the sentence with the previous embezzlement conviction. After the verdict, both Rong Jun and Guo Wen appealed, and Guo Wen later withdrew his appeal.

Rong Jun's grounds for appeal were that he did not have the subject status for the crime of embezzlement, and that the first-instance judgment had unclear facts, insufficient evidence, and an excessively heavy sentence. In response, the court noted that upon investigation, Rong Jun and Guo Wen and others, with the purpose of illegal possession, jointly conspired and used the job convenience of Guo Wen and others to carry out the crime of fraudulently obtaining state demolition compensation. During the offense, Guo Wen, according to the criminal conspiracy, used his position as Party branch secretary and village head of Guaicun Central Village to falsely report a large number of walnut trees in the village and fabricate false demolition procedures to fraudulently obtain more than 9.978 million yuan in state demolition compensation, after which Rong Jun received 6.178 million yuan in illicit funds from Guo Wen; by the time the case was uncovered, most of the illicit funds had been controlled and squandered by Rong Jun.

The Municipal High People's Court, after trial, rejected Rong Jun's appeal, upheld the original judgment, and permitted Guo Wen to withdraw his appeal.