Luo Yaping was only a district bureau chief in a rust-belt city in Liaoning , but the 50-year-old woman is already a record-holder to the country's top graft-busters: she's the lowest-ranking official who amassed the highest amount using the most underhanded tricks, they claim. According to Fangyuan (Rule by Lawyers) magazine, a publication affiliated with the country's top prosecutors' office, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, investigators uncovered a total of 145 million yuan (HK$166 million) under Luo's name, including 22 properties. The provincial prosecutors' office would not confirm the amount, as the case against Luo is still pending, but if true, that would make her the most corrupt official in Liaoning by value. With a humble upbringing, Luo worked as a small-time correspondent for a government internal publication before she was transferred to the Land Resources Bureau's Shuncheng district branch in Fushun in the early 1990s, where she met her second husband, who was well-connected. But her career began to take off when Shuncheng district was marked in the late 1990s for expansion as older city areas were increasingly under siege by growing oil refineries, steel mills and other manufacturers. As the director of the district's land transaction centre in Fushun, Luo's biggest break came in March 2007, when, according to investigators, she siphoned 8 million yuan from land sales revenue. Luo is also alleged to have stolen 10 million yuan from public coffers by falsifying the identities of 12 homeowners in compensation transactions since March 2005. One of the officials who allegedly fell prey to her was Jiang Runli , then the director of the Fushun Bureau of Land and Resources, who is now serving a life sentence for taking bribes and abuse of power. Investigators say they confiscated a raft of luxury goods at Jiang's home, including 48 Rolex watches and 253 Louis Vuitton handbags. They did not say whether Luo gave any of the items to him, but she was found to have given him a pre-paid shopping card worth 200,000 yuan at the upmarket Zhuozhan Shopping Mall in Shenyang . As the case against Luo has proceeded, lurid claims about her private life and bullying have surfaced. The magazine reported that she was so abusive and aggressive that she often engaged in quarrels with homeowners, using vulgar language. 'Few officials would disregard their rank and status to quarrel with ordinary people in the streets, but Luo could, and for that you've got to look up to her,' Fangyuan quoted one official as saying. Authorities in Liaoning began to look into corruption allegations against Luo in 2005. She was detained in March 2008. The Shenyang Intermediate People's Court has held four hearings on her case since January last year, but no verdict has been announced. Fangyuan said Luo had suffered a serious breakdown, which makes sentencing impossible at present. Investigators found a total of HK$166 million under Luo's name, including 22 properties.