Chinese probe into cooking oil scandal results in arrests, firms disqualified and fines

The statement on Sunday night said the two truck drivers named in the report had been arrested and were expected to face criminal charges.

It said three other people who helped the driver issue a false receipt that the truck had been cleaned served 10 days in administrative detention.

The investigators said the local government had disqualified two transport companies and fined them more than 1.5 million yuan (US$210,000), and another company had been fined nearly 2 million yuan (US$281,000). He asked local police to continue investigating the three companies.

A subsidiary of the state stockpile company Sinograin was fined 2.86 million yuan. Another major player named in last month’s report, the private Hopefull Grain and Oil Group, was fined 2.51 million yuan.

One company that bought the oil carried in the tankers was fined 300,000 yuan and another was fined 260,000 yuan.

The statement by the investigation team said the incident was “extremely bad in nature, trampling on the bottom line of morality and the red line of the law, and is a typical criminal offense that must be severely dealt with.”

It said that, apart from the two trucks mentioned in media reports, the investigation team had conducted a nationwide investigation but “did not find any similar problems.”

The investigation team said the first truck was carrying 35.91 tons of cooking oil, of which 11 tons was used to make animal feed. The rest had not been sold and had been sealed.

The second truck was carrying 31.86 tonnes, of which 29.38 tonnes had been packaged and sold, mainly to the city of Ordos in the northwestern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Some 7.78 tons that had been sold but not yet used were recalled and sealed.

The two trucks originally came from Xingtai in Hebei, a northern province that borders Beijing. The investigation team said local officials were responsible and that anti-corruption agencies would be involved in further investigations.

The team vowed “zero tolerance” for such incidents and that it would continue to control the transportation of cooking oil.

Shortly after the report was published, a commentary in the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said it reflected Beijing’s “highly responsible attitude to food safety and its high-pressure stance of continuing to crack down on criminal and illegal acts involving food ”.

Early last month, the cooking oil scandal sparked nationwide concern and anger, with media outlets, including several state media outlets, calling for a thorough investigation and serious punishment.

Several cooking oil companies said they had investigated within and found no problems with their products or transportation.

The State Council then set up a high-level joint investigation team, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the ministries of public security and transportation, the National Health Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.

It is not the first time Chinese media has reported on the transportation of cooking oil. In 2005 and 2015, media reports highlighted similar practices.

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