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A top official of the city's Putuo District has been arrested for allegedly taking large bribes, the Shanghai People's Prosecutors Office said yesterday.

Chen Meng, deputy director of Putuo District, was sacked from his position and arrested on September 20 after it was alleged he engaged in bribery before he took up the post in February.

A probe was launched by Shanghai's Party discipline inspection commission and prosecutors after anonymous tips were reported.

Initial investigation showed that Chen took the advantage of his position to win construction contracts for others, accepting large sums from investors when he was deputy director of Songjiang District from 2003 to early this year.

Yang Haipeng, an investigative reporter for Caijing magazine, claimed on his microblog that during the time Chen worked for Songjiang District his wife asked him to help her attract savings to boost her ambitions to become director of the Shanghai branch of China Minsheng Banking Corp.

Chen then was in charge of the district's construction department and asked property developers there to become his wife's clients. She was successful in her bid to become director for the bank after securing deposits worth several billion yuan.

Before the eight years he worked in Songjiang District, Chen, 49, held posts as office director of Jing'an District government, deputy Party secretary of Jing'an District Property Management Bureau, and general manager of Jing'an Properties Group.

In corruption cases last year, Cai Zhiqiang, former chief of Putuo District, got 14 years in prison for accepting 2.84 million yuan (US$444,703) in bribes, and Yin Kunneng, also of the Putuo District government, was jailed for 11 years for taking bribes.

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