SEVEN people accused of rigging a lottery in order to help public officers buy apartments in a new residential complex called Chang’an Residence One, in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, have been placed under criminal investigation. Those suspects work at either Xi’an Tianlei Property Co., the developer of the apartments, or a technology company in Wuhan, Hubei Province, that is responsible for running the lottery system, the city government said Saturday. They allegedly manipulated the computerized system to ensure certain people won apartments, according to the results of an official probe launched after a screenshot of a confidential spreadsheet listing the “backdoor clients” went viral online. The spreadsheet included the names, phone numbers and ID card numbers of over 60 clients as well as their preferred units and their relationships with the local housing, planning, construction or land and resources bureaus. In addition to the police investigation into the employees, the city government said 35 government employees had been punished in relation to the scandal, including eight who were “removed from their posts,” six reassigned and five given warnings. Xi’an’s housing management bureau issued a regulation March 30 that said commercial residential buildings should be sold via lottery when the number of people intending to buy an apartment exceeds that of apartments on offer. The bureau said it had launched a campaign to fight illegal behavior in the sale of commercial residential buildings, including rigged lotteries. The official statement said the investigation found there were illegal sales behaviors in the Tianlei housing project. (China Daily) |