China executes tycoon linked to Macau casino laundering

The People’s Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences by the Xianning Intermediate People’s Court for Liu Han, his brother Liu Wei, and three others: Tang Xianbing, Zhang Donghua and Tian Xianwei. The five were described by Xinhua as “members of a mafia-style gang.”

The Liu brothers and 34 other defendants were in May convicted of organizing, leading or participating in a gang, and of complicity in murder.

Five of the defendants were “sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve”, four were given life imprisonment and 22 were handed varying prison terms, stated the news agency. “The case was extremely vile and harmful,” the Hubei court said in a statement on Monday, according to Xinhua.

Liu Han was until his arrest in March 2013 chairman of Sichuan Hanlong (Group), described by Xinhua as the biggest private enterprise in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. He owned subsidiaries in the electricity, energy, finance, mining, real estate and securities sectors according to the news agency.

The higher court said his criminal activities had been linked to eight deaths, gun sales, racketeering, vandalism, obstruction of public officials in their duty, disturbance of the peace, gambling and harboring criminals, stated Xinhua.

In February 2012 Xinhua reported – quoting Xianning People’s Procuratorate in Hubei province – that Mr Liu and “criminal associates” had made more than US$ 29.6 million taking mainland citizens to gamble in Macau.

It was reported in the mainland media  that Liu Han had links to China’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang. Mr Zhou, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee until November 2012, is one of the highest-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party to be detained by mainland authorities in recent decades.