A Shanghai court today sentenced a Chinese-Australian executive of Rio Tinto to seven years in prison on charges of accepting bribes and five years on charges of stealing commercial secrets.
The Shanghai Intermediate People's Court said Stern Hu, who headed Rio Tinto's iron ore operations in China, will serve 10 years.
Hu had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes but disputed the amount of 6.46 million yuan (€708,640) alleged by prosecutors.
Three other Rio executives were also sentenced to between seven and 14 years in prison on bribery and secrets charges.
Rio Tinto declined to comment on the verdict.
The case has raised foreign investor concern over China's legal system, particularly the paucity of official information surrounding the secrets charges. It has shed light on business practices in the Chinese steel industry, the world's largest, as well as in the global iron ore trade.
Leaked testimony of money handed over in cardboard boxes and plastic bags also cast the spotlight on business practices by Chinese steel mills desperate to secure relatively low-cost and stable iron ore supplies from Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest miner.
All four Rio employees pleaded guilty to receiving kickbacks but contested the amounts, which prosecutors said reached 75 million yuan, including $9 million from steel tycoon Du Shuanghua, in the case of Wang Yong, head of a separate iron ore sales team.
Only one of the four, Liu Caikui, pleaded guilty to infringing commercial secrets in a portion of the trial closed to Australian diplomats. Liu was accused of taking 3.78 million yuan, the lowest amount of kickbacks of the four Rio employees.
Prosecutors had asked for more than five years in jail for the charges of receiving bribes alone, lawyers said last week.
A guilty verdict could raise questions about Rio's business practices, although the company says an audit cleared it of wrongdoing.
US authorities fined carmaker Daimler AG $185 million last week for bribing officials in a number of countries, including China.
Foreign reporters were barred from the trial. Much of the foreign interest in the case stems from the secrets charges, which adds a layer of uncertainty and risk to operating in China. Some of the information, including detailed mine production and operation rates, is considered by companies as vital market intelligence in China, where official statistics are unreliable.
Australian diplomats were barred from the commercial secrets portion of the trial, a ban that legal scholars say contravenes China's own laws as well as consular agreements.
The court is also due to rule on a second case, that of Tan Yixin, an executive at Shougang Corp, China's eighth-largest steel mill, who was detained around the same time as Rio's Stern Hu, a Chinese-born Australian citizen, and his Chinese colleagues at Rio Tinto.
Court documents showed the verdict in the case of Mr Tan and unnamed others for violating commercial secrets would be issued this afternoon by the same judge.
Chinese officials did not say when their trial took place.
Mr Tan, who was at one point considered a candidate to head Shougang, was detained in July along with Wang Hongjiu, shipping manager for Laiwu Iron and Steel Group.
They were questioned for "revealing China's negotiating strategy" during tense term iron ore price talks in 2009, when the China Iron and Steel Association was trying to bring domestic mills to heel to present a united front against miners Rio, BHP Billiton and Vale.
Reuters