力拓案塵埃落定 仍有疑問未解

【英文原文】

Rio Tinto China Employees Get Jail Terms
A Chinese court handed down a 10-year prison sentence to the principal defendant in the closely watched Rio Tinto PLC trial here, a dramatic and closely watched case that abruptly swung from politically charged accusations of espionage to admissions of bribery over iron-ore contracts.

The Anglo-Australian mining company-which had once defended its four accused employees-swiftly fired them Monday, saying there was 'clear evidence' they took bribes. The company described the actions of the convicted employees as 'deplorable' and said they acted 'wholly outside our systems.'

'Receiving bribes is a clear violation of Chinese law and Rio Tinto's code of conduct,' said Sam Walsh, head of the iron-ore division.A Shanghai court issued its finding that Stern Hu, the Australian who spearheaded sales for Rio Tinto in China, was guilty of charges he accepted around $935,000 in bribes from steelmakers and stole commercial secrets that undermined China's steel industry, the world's largest. Last week Mr. Hu admitted he accepted bribes on two occasions from steelmakers.

Three of Mr. Hu's Rio Tinto colleagues received sentences ranging from seven to 14 years.

Stephen Smith, Australia's foreign minister, didn't challenge the verdict but called the sentences 'very harsh' following efforts by his government to quietly defuse charges against a citizen and one of his most important companies.

Mr. Smith played down the likelihood of a substantial impact on Australia-China relations, but said he was concerned at how charges of stealing commercial secrets were tried behind closed doors, saying, 'There are serious unanswered questions on which the international business community will want to pursue with China.'

China's aggressive prosecution of employees of one of the most profitable foreign companies operating on its soil marked a fresh turn in an ongoing, if sporadic, corruption battle that has until now ensnared mostly government officials and local tycoons. Yet, the Chinese court's decision not to disclose much about the information the executives were alleged to have stolen means the case has shed little new light on how authorities differentiate corporate fact-finding from espionage-a situation that is likely to further distress companies weighing risks in their China strategies.

Rio Tinto's quick response to the court's findings may set a precedent for multinational companies' response when employees get enmeshed in China's murky legal environment. The company said its own internal investigation turned up no problems in its China operations, and while it had no involvement in the court proceedings or access to its employees since their detentions, it sent a determined signal that it respects the validity of the verdict.

A Beijing-based attorney said a guilty verdict virtually requires a company to take action to display its acknowledgment that a local court has jurisdiction, particularly after such a public case. Doing anything else would expose it to risks that include shareholder lawsuits and lost government contracts.

The lengthy sentences against Mr. Hu and his three subordinates suggested the court was little moved by their admissions of some guilt and explanations. The three subordinates-Chinese nationals Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang and Liu Caikui-were sentenced to 14, eight and seven years, respectively.

Mr. Hu must pay fines of one million yuan, or $146,000, in addition to serving 10 years in prison, starting with his detention in July, 2009. Mr. Hu's three colleagues face a combined 6.7 million yuan in fines.

In the eight months that led up to the trial, and its 2½-day session last week, few details of the allegations were spelled out publicly. But on Monday, journalists previously barred from the court property were permitted to watch the final proceedings by closed-circuit television from a courtroom annex.

Judge Liu Xin spent most of the 35-minute proceeding reading bullet-point accusations of how the four steered iron-ore shipments to more than a dozen Chinese steelmakers in exchange for bribes valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each. One such payment from a steel tycoon was disguised as a home loan, according to the accusations.

In June, the judge said, as Rio Tinto and a Chinese steel-industry association were locked in a tense negotiation over iron-ore prices, Mr. Hu huddled with an executive of a major steelmaker at Beijing's five-star China World Hotel, where he learned in advance how the association intended to bid for the mineral at a coming round of talks.

The judge alleged a 'direct cause-and-effect relationship' between the actions of the Rio Tinto employees and extra charges of over one billion yuan to China's steel industry for iron ore last year.

'They used illegal means to obtain commercial secrets that put the Chinese steel industry in a powerless position,' he said.

The case could spur changes in how iron ore gets priced in China, an issue with potentially global repercussions. China, which produced around 40% of last year's global output of steel, imported $50.14 billion of the feedstock iron ore last year, but has been frustrated at how its demand has driven commodity charges up in recent years.

Today, the global iron-ore trade is dominated by three companies with multibillion-dollar businesses selling minerals in China. Rio Tinto sold $10.69 billion of ore and other minerals to China last year. The others are BHP Billiton Ltd. with $9.9 billion in China sales in the year ended June and Brazil's Vale SA, which reported $9.0 billion in China sales for 2009. The companies are deeply tied to China, each generating around 20% of global totals in the world's most populous nation.

The Rio Tinto employees' detention in July appeared to many as highly politicized, since it came at a time when Rio Tinto was rattling China in at least three ways. It was considering a $120 billion merger with rival BHP that China feared would create a behemoth able to dictate pricing of minerals key to its industries. Rio Tinto had also just backed out of a $19.5 billion deal to allow its largest shareholder, Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chinalco, to boost its stake.

And days earlier, talks to price iron ore for the year had collapsed over Rio Tinto's refusal to acquiesce to a Chinese manufacturing group's demands for a sizable price cut.

In recent weeks, such tensions have been nowhere in sight. Rio Tinto expressed a desire to move on. 'I want to look to the future,' Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese told a conference in Beijing last week shortly before shaking hands with Premier Wen Jiabao.

In the time since the case broke, there has been little discussion of Rio Tinto and BHP merging. On the eve of the trial, Rio Tinto announced a $1.35 billion deal allowing Chinalco to directly share in the production of iron ore in Africa.

On Monday, the defendants said nothing and expressed little emotion as the verdicts and sentences were read. Mr. Hu, who was born in Tianjin, China, and is in his 50s with a head of gray hair, stood erect in a dark jacket with his hands at his sides.

The convicted executives have a right to appeal the verdicts in the next few days, but Chinese courts rarely overturn decisions.

Mr. Hu is likely to be remanded to a special facility reserved for foreigners in Shanghai's Qingpu Prison, located in a rural western part of the city. In a rare 2005 visit to the facility by The Wall Street Journal, the warden offered a visit to one cell, which housed eight prisoners on four bunk beds and was connected to a small washroom. Prisoners are required to spend much of their day sitting quietly.

Mr. Smith, the Australian foreign minister, expressed regret Canberra wasn't able to engage more fully behind the scenes with Beijing on the charges in recent months. 'That opportunity, too, was lost,' he said.

A Pengana Capital fund manager, Tim Schroeders, said the verdicts raise issues about employee conduct but won't have lasting ramifications for Rio Tinto's business. 'Arguably some of the mud may stick, although there has been no direct linkage to Rio Tinto,' he said.

【中文譯文】

力拓案塵埃落定 仍有疑問未解
上海市第一中級人民法院對力拓(Rio Tinto)案主犯判處了10年有期徒刑，這樁跌宕起伏、倍受關注的案件從一開始頗具政治色彩的間諜罪指控變成了判定涉案人員基於鐵礦石合約收取賄賂。

澳大利亞駐上海總領事孔陶傑在法院外接受記者採訪而力拓這家曾捍衛四名被告的英澳礦企週一憤怒解僱這四名人員，稱有“明確證據”顯示他們接受了賄賂。力拓稱這些員工的行爲應該受到譴責，而且他們完全是在公司的體系之外從事了這些非法活動。

力拓公司鐵礦石部門負責人沃爾什(Sam Walsh)說，收受賄賂顯然違反中國的法律和力拓的行爲準則。受理此案的上海法庭裁定力拓在中國的鐵礦石銷售主管、澳籍華人胡士泰(Stern Hu)從中國鋼鐵企業手中受賄93.5萬美元，並竊取了有害中國鋼鐵企業的商業祕密。上週，胡士泰承認自己接受了兩筆賄賂。目前中國鋼鐵企業規模已經雄居全球之冠。

胡士泰另外三名受到指控的中國同事分別被判處了7到14年有期徒刑。

澳大利亞外交部長斯蒂芬•史密斯(Stephen Smith)並未質疑此次判決，但表示量刑“十分嚴厲”。此前澳大利亞政府一直在暗中努力，試圖撤銷中方針對澳籍公民以及針對力拓這家澳洲最重要公司的指控。

史密斯對此案可能給中澳關係帶來的影響進行了淡化處理，但他表示自己擔心有關竊取商業機密罪的審理是如何在非公開情況下進行的。他說，仍有一些重要問題未能獲得答案，國際商業社會將就此繼續追問中方。

力拓的盈利能力在在華外企中位列前茅，中國給其僱員判以重刑的做法標誌着國內的反腐鬥爭迎來了新的局面，眼下中國持續的反腐努力主要針對的是政府官員和本土商業大亨。不過，中國法院決定不過多披露力拓僱員竊取的祕密，這意味着本案未能進一步澄清政府如何區分企業的實情調查和間諜行爲，這種情況有可能令那些正在評估在華策略風險的公司感到更加沮喪。

力拓對判決的快速反應有可能給那些有僱員在中國官司纏身的跨國公司創下先例。力拓說，公司內部自查並未發現在華業務有什麼問題，同時公司沒有參予法庭審判，自從員工被捕後也沒有和他們進行過接觸。力拓這麼做是發出了一個明確的信號，即公司尊重此次判決的合法性。

一位駐北京的律師說，有罪判決需要公司採取行動表明自己承認這家地區法庭做出了司法裁定，在這樣一起公開案件中就更是如此。做其他事情則有可能讓公司面臨包括股東訴訟以及失去政府合同等風險。

此次法庭對胡士泰等人判以重刑表明他們此前部分認罪並給出解釋的做法並未打動法官。胡士泰的三名下屬王勇、葛民強和劉才魁分別判處14年、8年和7年有期徒刑。

胡士泰除領刑10年之外還必須上繳罰金人民幣100萬元，合14.6萬美元。胡士泰服刑的日期將從2009年7月被拘時開始算起。餘下三人需繳罰金合計人民幣670萬元。

在開庭前的八個月以及上週兩天半的法庭審理期間，沒有任何有關指控的細節向公衆披露。但週一時，此前被禁止踏入法院的記者獲准來到法院七層的一間屋子，通過閉路電視收看宣判的情景。

宣判全程歷時35分鐘，主審法官劉欣（音）用其中大部分時間來宣讀他們的罪狀，講述了他們如何將鐵礦石賣給十餘家向他們行賄的中國鋼鐵企業，以換取數十萬美元的賄賂。劉欣稱，來自一家鋼鐵企業的賄賂是以房屋貸款的名義給出的。

法官說，去年6月份，在力拓與一家中國鋼鐵行業協會就鐵礦石價格展開激烈談判之際，胡士泰與一家大型鋼鐵企業的一名高管在北京五星級酒店中國大飯店會面，提前得知該協會在即將進行的一輪談判中計劃如何出價競購。

法官稱，力拓員工的行爲與去年中國鋼鐵行業在鐵礦石上多花人民幣10多億元之間有着“直接因果關係”。

他說，他們利用非法手段獲取商業祕密，將中國鋼鐵行業置於無能爲力的處境。

此案可能會引發鐵礦石在中國定價方式的變化，這個問題可能會帶來全球影響。去年，中國鋼鐵產量佔全球產量的約40%，去年鐵礦石進口額爲501.4億美元。不過，近幾年中國對鐵礦石的需求導致價格上升，這讓中國感到很受挫。

目前，全球鐵礦石貿易主要由三家企業所把持，它們在中國都有着數十億美元的礦產銷售業務。去年，力拓對中國的鐵礦石等礦產銷售額爲106.9億美元。此外，截至去年6月份，必和必拓(BHP Billiton Ltd.)在中國銷售額爲99億美元。2009年，巴西淡水河谷(Vale SA)在中國銷售額爲90億美元。這三家企業與中國關係密切，每一家在全球人口最多的中國的銷售額都佔了各自全球銷售總額的約20%。

去年7月力拓員工的被拘在很多人看來都是高度政治化的，原因是當時力拓與中國在至少三個問題上爭執不下。當時力拓正考慮與對手必和必拓進行規模1,200億美元的合併，而中國擔心這將會產生一個能夠支配對中國產業至關重要的礦產定價的超級礦業巨頭。力拓還剛剛退出了允許最大股東中國鋁業公司規模達195億美元的增持交易。

在那之前幾天，由於力拓拒絕默許一家中國製造業組織提出的大幅降價的要求，當年的年度鐵礦石價格談判破裂。

近幾周來，根本看不到這樣的緊張局面。力拓表達了往前看的願望。力拓首席執行長艾博年(Tom Albanese)上週在北京的一次大會上說，我希望放眼未來。他說此話之後不久與國務院總理溫家寶握了手。

自力拓案曝光以來，力拓與必和必拓之間有關合並事宜的討論就很少了。在力拓案開庭審理的前夕，力拓宣佈允許中國鋁業公司直接分享在非洲的鐵礦石生產，交易規模達13.5億美元。

週一宣判的時候，四名被告什麼也沒有說，也沒有表露出什麼情緒。胡士泰生於中國天津，現在50多歲。在法庭上，頭髮花白的他身穿深色夾克，筆直地站着，兩手放在身側。

未來幾天，被定罪的力拓員工有權就判決提出上訴，不過中國法院很少會駁回原判。

胡士泰可能被關押在上海西郊青浦監獄的一個專爲外國人設立的特殊設施。2005年，《華爾街日報》曾獲得難得的機會，參觀了該監獄，獄警讓記者參觀了一個囚室，裏面有四張雙層牀，住着八個犯人，旁邊連着一個很小的盥洗室。犯人們大部分時間都必須安靜地坐着。

澳大利亞外交部長史密斯對澳大利亞政府近幾個月沒能在幕後就力拓案更徹底地與中國政府接觸表示遺憾。他說，那個機會也失去了。

Pengana Capital基金經理施洛德斯(Tim Schroeders)說，判決引發了有關員工行爲的問題，但不會對力拓業務造成持久的影響。他說，值得質疑的是，有些中傷性的評論可能難以消除，即便與力拓沒有直接關係。