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Video: Tons of gold, Dh136 billion found in Chinese official's house, bank account

The corrupt official has been fired and is under investigation.

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Zhang Qi, a 58-year-old Chinese official in Haikou, is suspected to have received 13 and a half tons of gold and 268 billion yuan in cash bribes. He has been fired and is under investigation from the country's corruption watchdog.

Thousands of gold bars estimated to be worth up to 520 million pounds were found at the leader's home during a raid by corruption inspectors this month. Inspectors also discovered 268 billion yuan in suspected bribes in his bank account. He was also thought to have received multiple luxury villas as kickbacks.


Zhang was the secretary of the Communist Party of Haikou and was also a member of the standing committee of Hainan Province. He has been stripped of both titles by the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Footage circulating on Twitter showed a person counting gold bricks in what was believed to be a room in Zhang's lavish home. The clip and related news may have been censored in mainland China.

If Zhang's alleged corruption is proven, he would have been richer than the Jack Ma, the wealthiest man in China according to Forbes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had taken a tough-on-corruption stance since he took office in 2012. Zhang is the 17th senior official to be investigated for corruption in China since the beginning of the year.

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