The Shanghai Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Shanghai Commission of Supervision announced Friday nine officials involved in the Shanghai pension fund graft probe have been expelled from their posts and the CPC.

The expelled officials include Zhu Junyi, former director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security, Qin Yu, former deputy secretary of the Shanghai's Baoshan District CPC Committee, and Sun Luyi, former deputy secretary-general of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.

The three officials were accused of immoral behavior, taking bribes, and leading decadent lifestyles, according to the decision.

Others dismissed include Wang Chengming and Han Guozhang, two officials of the Shanghai Electric Group, Wu Hongmei, former deputy director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Shanghai Municipal Government, and Wang Guoxiong, former general manager of Shanghai Industrial Investment Group.

The officials will also face criminal charges, the commission said.

The decision was made according to Party discipline rules and the Law on Public Servants, and has been approved by the Shanghai Municipal Government and the CPC Shanghai Committee, the commission said.

The Shanghai social security fund scandal is the city's biggest scandal since economic reforms began.

Revealed to the public last year, it involved 3.7 billion yuan (US$474 million), including 3.45 billion yuan (US$442 million) in principal and 250 million yuan (US$32 million) of interest.

The scandal has led to the downfall of over a dozen senior officials and businessmen, including Chen Liangyu, former secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC) and Qiu Xiaohua, former head of the National Bureau of Statistics.

In the wake of the scandal, Shanghai set up a working panel to help the central government investigators trace the misappropriated funds.

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng said in January this year that the city has retrieved all the money siphoned from the Shanghai social security fund for illicit loans and investments last year, and has completely overhauled management of the system.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2007)