Former official at securities regulator expelled from CPC

Yao Qian, a former official of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from public office for serious violations of the Party disciplines and national laws, the country's top anti-corruption authorities announced after an investigation.

The investigation was completed by a disciplinary group arranged by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in the commission and a supervisory team in Shanwei, Guangdong province.

The announcement was disclosed on Wednesday in an online statement by the discipline inspection and the National Commission of Supervision, which revealed that Yao allegedly used virtual currencies to transfer illicit benefits in an attempt to evade investigation.

Yao, who also served as head of the commission's information center, was discovered to have reportedly posed as a fintech expert and spared no effort to support some technology service providers for his own personal gains, according to the statement.

The statement said that Yao not only abused the powers of policy suggestion, formulation and implementation, but also allegedly sought improper profits for others in matters including the expansion of business in information technology service system and procurement of hardware and software instead of performing his supervision duty.

Yao conducted superstitious activities, as well as used virtual currencies to strike deals between power and money and reportedly illegally accepted luxury goods, banquets and Kweichow Moutai, a high-end Chinese liquor, it said.

In addition, Yao was found to have transferred car rental fees that should have been paid by himself to individuals or departments under his supervision, and allegedly illegally borrowed large amounts of money from those entities to invest in companies, it added.

"Yao's behaviors have constituted a serious duty violation and is suspected of taking bribes, so we've decided to expel him from the Party and remove him from public office, with confiscation of his illicit gains," the authorities said in the statement.

His suspected violations of national laws would be transferred to prosecutors for further criminal investigation and review, it added.

Public information shows that Yao, born in 1970, is a native of Anhui province and worked for the country's securities regulatory and banking systems for years. He was placed under investigation in April.