Coal official's corruption probe concludes

A probe into suspected corruption by Wei Pengyuan, former vice director of the National Energy Administration's coal department, has concluded.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said in a statement on Wednesday that Wei had been investigated on suspicion of taking bribes. He is thought to have held property that he was unlikely to have been able to afford on his legitimate income.

The SPP designated the local procuratorate in the city of Baoding, Hebei Province, to conduct the investigation and the prosecutors have transferred the case for further prosecution upon conclusion of the probe, the statement said.

Prosecutors said they found cash worth more than 200 million yuan (32 million US dollars) in Wei's house. It was the largest amount of cash prosecutors have ever seized in one place since the founding of New China in 1949.