A former director of Macau's Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) has been accused by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) of bribe-taking, money laundering and document forgery, according to a CCAC statement this morning.
The statement did not identify the suspect, merely referring to him as a "former leader" of the bureau. However, public broadcaster TDM and other local media have meanwhile identified as Li Canfeng, an engineer who headed the bureau between December 2014 and December 2019.
According to the statement, Li's suspected bribe-taking and other alleged crimes were discovered by Macau's graft-busters when they were investigating a bribery case.
The statement said that Li allegedly received huge bribes from businesspeople and through a relative for illicitly approving a raft of construction permits, one of which involved an expired street alignment plan so that a construction project could nevertheless go ahead.
According to the statement, the suspect also helped a relative obtain a residency permit from the government's Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) through a fake investment in a local company with the help of a businessperson.
The suspect allegedly also received huge bribes from another businessperson "in return for bypassing the statutory procedures and speeding up the inspection and acceptance of the relevant construction works." Due to the illegality, the respective licence was granted "just before the expiry of the land use period," the statement said.
According to the statement, the suspect allegedly also told his subordinates to give their favourable assessment of a land development project "so that the developer was awarded the land concession and subsequently made a massive profit by selling it at a high price."
The statement also said that the businesspeople and other individuals involved in the alleged cases are suspected of the crimes of bribe-giving, money laundering and document forgery.
According to the statement, the CCAC investigation into the alleged cases was "fully supported" by the police in the Chinese mainland and the local Judiciary Police (PJ). "The former managed to intercept" the suspect, "who had fled to and settled in the Chinese mainland, and handed him over to the CCAC for investigation through the latter."
The statement added that the case has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for follow-up action.
Caption: Undated local media file photo of Li Canfeng
.
