Former Shanghai housing director under investigation

Yao Kai, former director of the Shanghai Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission, is under investigation for serious violations of laws and discipline, according to a statement released by the city's Party discipline inspection commission.

Investigations found that Yao had taken gifts, money and prepaid cards, and accepted invitations to banquets, which might have affected his duty performance, said the statement.

Yao is also alleged to have obtained large returns through illegal private lending, helped relatives in purchasing relocation housing, engaged in power-sex trades and took advantage of his positions to take money and property from others.

Yao has been expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office, with his qualification as a delegate to the 12th Congress of the Shanghai Committee of the Communist Party of China terminated, according to the statement.

Yao's case and his illicit gains have been handed over for judicial proceedings, said the statement.