(By staff reporters Wang Feng, Ling Huawei, Wu Xiaoliang and researcher Richard C. Carew II in Beijing Staff Reporter Cao Haili in Shanghai Special Correspondent Lu Jiamin in Los Angeles , California) On December 16, 2004, Zhang Enzhao spoke solemnly on Chinese national television about devoting himself "whole-heartedly, taking one solid footstep at a time," in fulfilling his duties. As the 58-year-old banker sought enthusiastically to convince the audience that he deserved the title of "Economic Person of the Year," few would have guessed that his days were numbered as the top man at China ’s third largest bank. Three months later, Zhang resigned from his post as chairman of China Construction Bank. The bank made the announcement on March 16, citing only "personal reasons." On the same day, Zhang also gave up his position as chairman of the China International Capital Corporation. As rumors and speculations continue to fly in Beijing ’s government and financial circles as to the real cause of Zhang’s departure, Caijing has learned that Zhang has been accused of accepting bribes in a civil law suit filed late last year in California , the United States . According to court documents obtained by Caijing, a Chinese company in early December sued Zhang along with a Fortune 500 company, alleging that Zhang colluded with the latter to breach a contract and deny the plaintiff some US＄ 58.7 million. In return, Zhang received US＄ 1 million and other monetary favors from the US company, according to the complaint. It is yet unknown if the lawsuit triggered Zhang’s fall from grace, or if Zhang, who was in Beijing when the suit was filed, was ever officially served the legal papers. Zhang’s alleged bribe taking occurred during an all expenses-paid golf trip to Pebble Beach , California almost three years ago, according to Grace & Digital Information Technology, the plaintiff. Grace, who identified itself as a Beijing-based company, said it had assisted ALLTEL Information Services (AIS), a major US provider of financial management software systems, in marketing its software products to the China Construction Bank (CCB) in 2000 and 2001. Grace says its efforts led to the CCB’s awarding of two contracts to AIS in 2001, which, combined, were worth some US＄ 176 million. According to an agreement between Grace and AIS, the former would be paid one third of the license fee, or US＄ 58.7 million, says Grace. But Grace says it never received the money. It alleges that an AIS executive took Zhang and two of his personal friends to a golf game at Pebble Beach in May 2002, where the four men colluded to ostensibly replace the two previous contracts between CCB and AIS with new ones, thus denying the US＄ 58.7-million commission fee Grace was due to collect under the old contracts. In return, Grace says, Zhang received more than US＄ 1 million from AIS "disguised as a consulting fee." The US＄ 1 million was paid to a Hong Kong company controlled by one of Zhang’s companions on the trip. The other companion, a resident of mainland China named Zhou Jianhua, received monthly payments of US＄ 3,500 up to the filing of the complaint, claims the plaintiff. Zhang also allegedly asked AIS to cover his son’s education expenses in London , as well as his wife’s expenses for travel between China and England , said the complaint. "Pebble Beach is one of the most expensive golf resorts in America; there were precedents in which US government officials were convicted of taking bribes after they were invited to play there," Jinshu "John" Zhang, a partner at Greenberg Traurig LLP, who represents Grace, told Caijing. Grace says Jim Wilson, the AIS executive, used his corporate credit card to pay more than US＄ 10,000 for the golf game. Fidelity National Financial (FNF), a Florida-based financial giant, bought AIS for US＄ 1.05 billion in 2003 and renamed it Fidelity Information Services (FIS). The two Fidelity companies, as well as an FNF subsidiary through which it owns FIS, are listed as lead defendants. Grace says the above-mentioned bribes violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977. In response papers they filed with the court in January 2005, the Fidelity defendants deny most of the charges except that AIS had a written agreement with Grace. They claim that the agreement was legally terminated when Grace failed to assist with AIS’s sales pitch after personnel changes at the top of CCB led to a suspension of all software-licensing contracts. AIS-FIS received only around US＄ 3 million under a 2001 contract with CCB, for which it paid Grace US＄ 290,000, Jim Wilson, who now works for FIS, says in a statement. Separately, the Fidelity defendants say they received some US＄ 6.5 million in licensing fees from CCB after December 2003. Wilson admits that AIS invited Zhang and his two friends to play golf at Pebble Beach in May 2002 but denies all bribery accusations. Language barriers between himself and Zhang, as well as the presence of a translator, made it impossible to conduct business discussions at the game, he says. "Expenses for this golf outing were far less than US＄ 10,000," he says in the statement. It is worth noticing that Zhang’s predecessor, Wang Xuebing, was removed from his CCB post in January 2002, and that Zhang made the Californian golf trip four months after he took over Wang’s position as president of the bank. Wang, who before the CCB served as president of the Bank of China, was later sentenced to 12 years in prison for receiving bribes during his tenure at the Bank of China. To most of his colleagues, 58-year-old Zhang Enzhao has little in common with his predecessor. Compared with the English-speaking, cigar-smoking Wang Xuebing, Zhang has neither a diploma from a prestigious university nor exquisite tastes to charm his colleagues at the China Construction Bank. Ironically, a similar turn of fate now seems to be haunting Zhang Enzhao. By the time he resigned, Zhang had served the bank for 40 years, rising up the ranks at its branch in his native Shanghai . While the CCB scrambles to ensure investors that the departure of its chairman will not affect its plan to list in Hong Kong later this year, the official Chinese investigation and hence, Zhang’s fate, remain unclear as government and bank investigators reportedly start examining court documents. In California , months-long legal wrangling over the jurisdiction of the trial, as well as the suspicious backgrounds of some of the parties involved, seem to further complicate the situation. The Fidelity defendants have successfully moved the trial from a California court in Monterey County , where Grace filed its complaint, to a federal court in San Jose . The plaintiff has since challenged the move, filing repeated motions to send it back to the state court. No date for the hearing has been set. Meanwhile, the identities of some parties in the suit remain unknown. Caijing was unable to reach Grace or any of its current employees by the time of publication. Rock Chiang, Grace’s chairman from November 2000 to June 2002, told Caijing in a March 18 telephone conversation from Taipei that he left the company after AIS broke the contract, and that he had heard no more from his former business partners. Chiang confirmed that Grace had worked as a marketing agent for AIS to sell its software to the CCB. According to the latest business registration information Caijing has recovered, Grace is wholly owned by a company named Follow-One international Group Corp. registered in the British Virgin Islands , which does not appear to have other businesses in the Chinese mainland. One of Chiang’s former partners, a Taiwan resident named Chen Zhihong, took over leadership of Grace after Chiang’s departure. In its complaint, Grace named Bobby Yip, a Hong Kong resident, as one of Zhang’s personal friends and companions on his Californian golf trip. It says the US＄ 1-million bribe was given to Zhang via the accounts of Prosten Technology Holdings Limited, a Hong Kong-listed company (HK 8026). Caijing was able to confirm from Prosten’s Beijing office that Bobby Yip, also known as Yip Heon Ping, is an executive director and general manager for Prosten. Calls to Yip were not returned. Caijing was unable to reach Zhou Jianhua, whom Grace identified as a next-door neighbor and close personal friend of Zhang. Zhou worked more than ten years at the CCB’s Shanghai branch when Zhang was head of the branch, Caijing has learned.