The lawyers said Stern Hu and the three Chinese nationals -- Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong -- pleaded guilty but disputed the amounts they are alleged to have accepted. They still face charges on stealing commercial secrets. “Like the other three executives, Hu also pleaded guilty to the bribery part. He was very calm when the case was under the trail,” said Tao Wuping, the lawyer for Liu. Calls to Hu’s lawyer, Duan Qihua, were not answered. The case has been used as an example of the hazards of doing business in China, but the guilty pleas may be an embarrassment for Rio Tinto, which has been saying its employees were innocent and which is again involved in tough iron ore price negotiations with China.
Australia’s consul-general in Shanghai, Tom Connor, told reporters that “during the course of the trial, Mr. Hu made some admissions concerning those two bribery amounts.”
