More than 500 villagers have hauled 18 village officials to court for allegedly embezzling 6 million yuan (US$722,890) in public funds, reports Shenzhen Commercial Daily.

Without villagers' consent, the officials approved construction of two factory buildings in 1987 and leased them to overseas investors.

Claiming the factory was built with personal investment, the 18 pocketed the revenues, totalling more than 6 million yuan.

A university student from Sichuan who came to the village to work in one of the factories in 1999 learned of the villagers' suspicions and helped them investigate.

The villagers gathered evidence that construction was partly funded through bank loans to the village, which were repaid with public funds.

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