On November 27, 2024, after four months since the first trial, Kong Xiangxi, former deputy director of the Finance and Economics Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes exceeding 84.74 million yuan.
In the morning of November 27, the Intermediate People’s Court of Xuancheng City pronounced the first-instance judgment on the bribery case of Kong Xiangxi, former deputy director of the Finance and Economic Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress, former party secretary and chairman of the board of the Huaihe Energy Holdings Group. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes and fined 6.5 million yuan.
According to the court, from 1996 to 2023, Kong Xiangxi took advantage of his positions as the mine manager of Huainan Mining Bureau Xieyi Mine, vice general manager, general manager, and chairman of Huainan Mining (Group) Co., Ltd., and chairman of Huaihe Energy Holdings Group Co., Ltd., to seek benefits for others in business contracting, coal supply, financing, and borrowing, illegally accepting a total of 84.747193 million yuan in cash and property from others (of which 45.640575 million yuan was attempted but unsuccessful).
Kong Xiangxi did not appeal in court.
Kong Xiangxi was investigated in October 2023, placed under party and judicial investigation in April this year, and the first trial was held on July 22.
At that time, the party announcement stated that Kong Xiangxi illegally accepted large gifts, cash gifts, and consumer cards, used his power to profit from family-run activities, arranged for others to pay for personal expenses, had others fund the construction of an ecological garden for his enjoyment; used his power to seek personal benefits for relatives; engaged in corruption and degeneracy; seriously damaged the political ecology of the enterprise; engaged in corrupt practices by leveraging coal resources, engaging in power-for-money exchanges, and “family-style” corruption, using his power to benefit others in project contracting, coal supply, financing, and borrowing, and accepting huge amounts of money and goods.
A public resume shows that Kong Xiangxi, born in August 1962 in Lu’an, Anhui Province, started working in the coal mine industry in July 1983.
In February 2014, Kong Xiangxi became the chairman of Huainan Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. In April 2020, he became the chairman of Huaihe Energy Holdings Group Co., Ltd., and the chairman of Huainan Mining (Group) Co., Ltd.
From January 2018 to November 2023, Kong Xiangxi also served as the deputy director of the Finance and Economics Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress.
According to the Huaihe Energy website, Huaihe Energy Holdings Group Co., Ltd. is one of the top 500 Chinese enterprises and a key enterprise in Anhui Province, being the largest in coal production and electricity scale in the province.