A company in Chongqing Municipality has been accused of setting sex traps for senior government officials to gain engineering contracts worth millions of yuan.

Chongqing Yonghuang Group videotaped at least six officials, including the sacked Beibei District Party Secretary Lei Zhengfu, having sex with the same woman, Zhao Hongmei, Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Unnamed insiders told the paper that Lei, who feared being disclosed by others, chose to confess his love affair to police. This led to an investigation into Yonghuang, Zhao's employer, in November 2009, the report said.

However, Chongqing police tried to sweep the case under the rug as an insider told the newspaper the sex tapes were concealed and Xiao Ye, one of Yonghuang's founders, was only detained for about six months for disturbing public order.

Five other officials implicated by sex tapes were not disciplined while some were even promoted until investigative reporter Zhu Ruifeng uploaded a sex video online in November 2012 that led to Lei's downfall.

Zhu has said that since the case returned to the headlines, police had once again detained Xiao and then transferred him to prosecutors.

Authorities haven't confirmed Zhu's story or said whether the other five officials involved, including a district head and a city government office chief, had been punished.

The report said Xiao, Yan Peng and Wang Jianjun orchestrated love traps to extort lucrative engineering contracts.

Yonghuang had hired at least three pretty women, including Zhao, 31, to entice senior officials.

The women used a pinhole video camera hidden in their handbag to record the sex acts and Zhao had taken the most footage, sources told the paper.

Xiao, Wang, Yan and other men would then break into the room and confront the official, insiders said.

Yonghuang gained several engineering projects worth tens of millions of yuan by threatening to publish the sex tapes, the paper revealed.

The report said it was unknown whether Yonghuang had been punished. But documents showed it just won two renovation projects worth a combined 3.15 million yuan in November, the paper said.

The paper also said Zhao was paid 40,000 yuan (US$6,427) after every "assignment." She met Xiao in 2007 and was once his mistress, the report said.