By staff reporter Hanwei

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On the afternoon of March 24, 61 year old Chen Liangyu, the highest ranking official implicated in the Shanghai pension fund scandal, was escorted under guard from Beijing's Qincheng Prison to Tianjin, facing the beginning of the judicial proceedings against him on March 25. This is the first time that the former member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and Shanghai party chief was seen in public after his fall from power on September 24 2006.

The Shanghai pension scandal which came to light in the summer of 2006 involved some 30 persons, including major political figures, senior managers of state-owned enterprises and wealthy private businessmen. The opening of Chen Liangyu’s trial shows that people can soon expect closure after a lengthy process of nearly two years of investigation and hearings.

The trial took place in a courtroom of the Tianjin Number 2 Intermediate People's Court. Attendants were mainly from the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme Court, as well as officials from the Jilin procuratorate, where the investigation first began.

Neither journalists or Chen’s family had access to the court. Although Chen's wife, Huang Yiling, had come to the courthouse, she had not been able to enter the courtroom since she is also implicated in matters before the court.

On March 25 at 9 am the trial started and lasted until 5 pm. The head of the panel of judges announced a recess but did not issue a verdict. The following day Chen Liangyu was escorted back to the Qincheng Prison.

One person present in court described Chen Liangyu as maintaining his calm and appearing in good spirits throughout the course of proceedings.

The prosecution set out charges under three categories of crime – taking bribes, abuse of official powers and dereliction of duty. There were four charges of taking bribes, two counts of abuse of official power and a single charge of dereliction of duty.

The charges stated that Chen Liangyu accepted bribes mainly in return for giving assistance in the approval of projects, the allocation of funds, bringing in the cooperation of business partners, intervention in land planning and official promotions. The total value of bribes accepted personally or by his family members totaled more than RMB 2.39 million.

Chen Liangyu was also prosecuted with “dereliction of duty,” by helping his younger brother Chen Liangjun earn major profits on land deals. This behavior enabled the younger Chen to make enormous sums in illegal earnings.

Both counts of abuse of official power that the prosecution laid against Chen Liangyu were directly linked to the Shanghai pension scandal. The prosecution alleged that Chen had misuse his official power to illegally grant loans from Shanghai pension funds to businessmen and enterprises.

From serving as governor of the Huangpu District to being a senior position in the Shanghai municipality, the foundation of Chen Liangyu’s political record owed to his success in infrastructure, construction and associated real estate deals. He was regarded as a staunch supporter of Shanghai’s real estate sector. In the pension scandal Chen, was accused of illegally using the pension fund to finance the real estate sector.

The State Audit Office found that as of July 2006 that RMB 20.125 billion of Shanghai social securities funds had been given out in loans to 44 real estate enterprises. Moreover, loans totaling RMB 15.907 billion were arbitrarily provided to 36 enterprises that did not meet the conditions of national policy on real estate development.

When the Shanghai pension scandal broke in July 2006 and agencies under the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection began their investigations, Chen Liangyu was discovered to be involve in the scandal. A year later on 26 July 2007 Chen was punished by expulsion from the Communist Party of China and removed from all his official posts. In respect to his suspected involvement in criminality he was handed over to the judicial system. A detailed report of an investigation into his breaches of discipline was also issued.