A court in Beijing recently sentenced three men to life in prison after discovering an audacious plot that resulted in the siphoning of about $71 million worth of refined oil from a pipeline.
The men, all industry veterans and close relatives.
The caper began in 2007, when Sun Lei discovered that land he had been renting in Beijing’s Fangshan District was near underground oil pipelines. He added a warehouse to his property in order to facilitate the theft.
Sun Lei began working with his son, Sun Zhigang, both of whom worked at the major Chinese oil company Sinopec, to steal the oil.
After discovering a joint in the pipe about 165 feet south of their lot, in October 2009 they installed their own piping with seamless elbows and valves to transport the oil back to their property. The oil ended up in underground tanks in 13-feet-deep pits beneath two garages.
