Bai Enpei, a former senior official with China's top legislature, admitted to corruption charges during a court trial on Thursday.

Bai, formerly deputy head of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress, pleaded no contest to charges of illegally gaining nearly 250 million yuan ($38 million) and the accusation that his family's expenditure was far greater than its income, according to a statement by Anyang Intermediate People's Court in Henan province, where a public hearing was held on Thursday.

The 69-year-old was the top official in Qinghai province from 1999 to 2001 and the top official in Yunnan province from 2001 to 2011, before he took the senior post at the NPC.

According to the prosecution, Bai used these positions to benefit 17 companies and individuals in engineering construction, real estate development, mining franchises and job promotions.

The people's procuratorate in Anyang, Henan province, accused him of bribery and unexplained sources of a large sum of income.

Bai accepted the charges and showed repentance.

More than 60 people, including his relatives, members of the public and journalists, were present at the open trial.

The court said its ruling will be announced at a later date.

Yunnan has the largest reserves of aluminum, lead, tin and zinc in China, and Bai, as former Party chief, the highest political position in the province, is reported to have illegally distributed these resources.

Under-the-table sales of a lead and zinc mine in Lanping, in the northwest of the province, and a tin mine in Dulong in the same area were uncovered after a tip-off about the deals was given to anti-graft authorities.

In early 2000, Liu Han, a mining tycoon and chairman of the energy conglomerate Sichuan Hanlong Group, is said to have had his eye on the Lanping mine. Bai allegedly abused his power to sell shares in Lanping to Liu.

In a series of complex transactions Liu obtained a 51 percent share in the lead and zinc mine in Lanping for just 153 million yuan in 2003.

The mine was assessed to have a value of more than 100 billion yuan, according to a news report in Caijing Magazine.

Liu was sentenced to death in May 2014, and executed in February last year.

zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/17/2016 page3)