Banker owns 20 Beijing properties worth 1b yuan

A local bank in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province denied on Sunday that it helped its deputy director accumulate properties worth 1 billion yuan ($160.7 million) in Beijing, reported the China Central Television (CCTV) Sunday.

Gong Aiai, former deputy chief of the Shenmu County Rural Commercial Bank in the province, had submitted her resignation in November, but the bank terminated her employment contract Friday.

She had been promoted to the position a year ago.

"Our investigation showed that her fortune had nothing to do with her bank position," Lü Gang, head of supervision with the bank, was quoted by the television network as saying.

An online whistle-blower revealed that Gong owns 20 properties in Beijing and that she possesses two ID cards, which is illegal in China.

The properties are now worth more than 1 billion yuan, and her second ID card has been revoked.

Gong's second ID card, which was issued by police in neighboring Shanxi Province, shows her name is Gong Xianxia.

Gong said the properties were purchased by her family with profits from a coal mine business and they are paying mortgages on some units, the Beijing Times reported.

Gong also said she was persuaded by a Taoist priest to register her second ID for superstitious reasons and she did not intend to use it to breach regulations, but other media reports that at least three of her properties were registered under her second ID card.

CCTV reported that the Kehu police station, the local police station in Shanxi that issued the second ID, said it only occurred due to a police officer's typing error when Gong transferred her hukou, or household registration permit, from Shanxi to Shaanxi in 2007.

A police officer surnamed Qiao in the Shanxi police station, told the Global Times Monday that an investigation was underway and refused to make further comment.