China Executes Mining Tycoon

'Mafia-style' boss owned stakes in US mines
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 9, 2015 3:52 AM CST
Updated Feb 9, 2015 5:33 AM CST
China Executes Mining Tycoon
Liu Han, the former multimillionaire chairman of energy conglomerate Sichuan Hanlong Group, is seen in Chengdu in 2011.   (AP Photo)

A former mining tycoon who led a mafia-style crime gang that ran casinos and killed rivals has been executed along with four of the gang's members, a court in central China said today. Liu Han had been chairman of energy conglomerate Sichuan Hanlong Group in the southwestern province of Sichuan. The company owns stakes in Australian and US mines. Prosecutors had painted a picture of Liu as running a vast criminal gang in the province with interests in mining, real estate, and gambling. They said the group gunned down rivals, maintained fleets of several hundred cars that included Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Ferraris, and fostered ties to prosecutors and police with drug-fueled parties.

Police recovered three military-issue hand grenades, a half-dozen submachine guns, and firearms and knives from the gang, according to state media. Liu, his brother Liu Wei, and three other men were executed at an unspecified time after their death sentences were approved by the Supreme People's Court, according to a statement by the Xianning Intermediate People's Court in Hubei province. The five were convicted in May last year of organizing, leading, or participating in a gang, as well as murder. The court said it organized meetings between the men and their families before they were executed. (More China stories.)

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