On July 5, 2009, four Rio Tinto employees, including Hu Shitai, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang and Liu, were detained by the Shanghai State Security Bureau. On July 9, 2009, the Shanghai State Security Bureau claimed that Hu Shitai and other four people had used improper means to spy on and steal China's state secrets.
On August 1 1 day, 2009, when Hu Shitai and other four people were formally arrested, the charges were reduced to "suspected of infringing on trade secrets and accepting bribes by non-state staff".
20 10 2 10, the first branch of Shanghai people's procuratorate filed a public prosecution with Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court against four people, including Hu Shitai, an Australian company of Rio Tinto, who were suspected of accepting bribes and infringing trade secrets by non-state employees.
20 10 On March 22nd, four Rio Tinto employees accused of taking bribes and infringing on trade secrets admitted taking bribes. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, the Rio Tinto case, which attracted much attention, was heard in the first court of Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court").
On the afternoon of March 29th, 20 10, the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court made a first-instance judgment on the Rio Tinto case, and found that Hu Shitai, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang and Liu were guilty of accepting bribes and infringing trade secrets by non-state employees, and were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 14 to 7 years respectively.
On July 4th, 20 18, Hu Shitai, an Australian businessman who was sentenced to serve his sentence in China for the Rio Tinto case, was released from prison.
Extended data:
Although Rio Tinto successfully solved its financial crisis with the previous capital injection of $654.38+09.5 billion from Chinalco, and benefited 400 billion in China, with the default and the appearance of spy door, the company's share price in China fell by 30%, and the direct loss of goodwill translation was nearly 654.38+00 billion yuan. The report also pointed out that some foreign companies such as Rio Tinto have tax evasion, business espionage, political corruption and other related problems in China.
Correspondingly, it also reveals the lack of scientific rationality in China's internal system, especially the iron ore import qualification management system, and the prevalence of corruption in China's iron and steel industry. With Rio Tinto trapped in the "spy door", the speculation that the iron ore market in China will be reshuffled has been triggered.
In addition, the incident led to tension in trade relations between China and Australia, and some international enterprises commented on it, expressing concern about the investment environment in China. However, in China, some steel enterprises are alienated from foreign companies, and senior officials go abroad on business trips. The previous iron ore negotiations were also temporarily suspended due to this influence. The incident also aroused the media and society's concern about China's economic security and related legislation.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Rio Tinto Case