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Wanda sacks executive embroiled in bribery case that may have shaped Chinese conglomerate’s destiny'.

Executive ‘acted on his own’ in bribing low-ranking official to help push through deal.

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda has sacked an executive who eight years ago bribed a local official for his help to push through a deal that helped transform the company into a private-held, joint-stock operation free of government ownership.

Leng Chuanjin, then general manager of Wanda Commercial Properties in Dalian and now chief engineer of Dalian Wanda Commercial Property, was mainly responsible for the act of bribery, which the company was unaware about until media reported about the case recently, according to Wanda Group.

As punishment, the company had decided to terminate Leng’s employment, the group said on its website on Thursday.

The details of the bribe surfaced in the trial earlier this year of Jin Cheng, the former Communist Party chief of Xigang district in Dalian, Wanda’s home base.

As bribes go, 300,000 yuan is considered small and Jin, a former municipal official in Dalian, Liaoning, is low-ranking. But the case sheds light on the early days of Wanda before it became the multinational property and entertainment giant it is today.

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