Guangdong official said to own 192 houses: report

A multi-millionaire in Guangdong province said that a local public security official allegedly owns at least 192 houses and used fake identities, according to a report published today in the Guangzhou Daily.

Zhao Haibin, a member of the Party committee of Lufeng city's public security bureau, who used to be the bureau's deputy head, was quoted by the paper as saying that the 192 houses in Huizhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Lufeng, which used to be registered under his name or his company's name, belong to his brother.

He said he was just managing the houses for his brother, and that the properties were no longer under his name.

Huang Kunyi, a local businessman who had a dispute with Zhao over a real estate property, raised the allegations.

Huang bought a house at an auction organized by a local court in 2009. But Zhao, the property's former owner, urged Huang to give up the deal.

Huang refused and was supported by the court. But he later allegedly received a fake property ownership certificate for the house, which cost him 3.4 million yuan ($546,000). The certificate allegedly stated that the property didn't belong to Huang.

The court then began to serve as an intermediate between the two sides. During the process, Huang allegedly found out that Zhao Haibin owned the property under the name Zhao Yong.

Zhao later allegedly admitted he had two household registrations, or hukou.

The hukou is a permanent residence registration and personal identification issued by public security departments. In China, individuals can only have one legitimate ID and one hukou record.

Later, Huang allegedly found that 192 real estate properties were registered under Zhao's name or under his company's name and raised the allegations on the Internet earlier this month.

Police said that Zhao had two hukou, but one of them was revoked after it was verified to be illegal, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

The local anti-corruption authorities have started to investigate the matter, the report added.

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