Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu sacked over sex film
Reports of official's decadence leads to downfall as counterpart also loses job amid bribe claims
A Chongqing district party chief caught on video having sex with a young mistress was sacked yesterday, becoming the latest party official to succumb to his own decadent lifestyle.
On the same day that the sex scandal cost Lei Zhengfu , 54, his post as Beibei district party secretary, one of his counterparts in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, was reportedly fired amid bribery allegations, underscoring the breadth of the country's corruption problem.
The action by the Chongqing Comnunist Party came just three days after a five-year-old video surfaced online appearing to show Lei having sex with his then-18-year-old mistress.
Authorities said the party's discipline inspection authority had confirmed Lei was indeed "the man in an indelicate video, which was widely circulated on the internet in recent days".
The statement faulted Lei for keeping mistresses, a common practice among fallen mainland officials that is nonetheless prohibited by party rules.
Lei's troubles began on Tuesday when two citizen journalists, Ji Xuguang and Zhu Ruifeng , posted shots from the video. They showed the district chief in bed with a woman who was known to frequently accompany him and refer to him as "godfather", Xinhua said.
They also alleged Lei had helped his brother win government contracts.
Lei initially claimed the pictures had been doctored when questioned by Xinhua reporters. The report did not detail how Ji and Zhu obtained the video or how it was filmed.
But Ji alleged Lei once ordered local police to hold his mistress in custody for one month after their relationship fell apart.
The decadent lifestyles of party officials have come under increasing scrutiny in recent months, amid a series of crackdowns and revelations on the internet. Former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai , who was also accused of keeping mistresses, was only the most high-profile case.
Lei's case was similar to that of an official from Guangzhou construction committee, who was also fired after his mistress released sex tapes on the internet.
Meanwhile, Zhu Weiping , party secretary of Wuxi's Binghu district, was also placed under party investigation after a steel company accused him of extracting 100 million yuan (HK$123 million) in bribes, the reported yesterday.
The report said Zhu kept half of a 200 million yuan loan he helped the company secure several years ago.
The company decided to turn in Zhu and revealed, among other things, a list of the mistresses he kept.
