Three government officials in north China's Shanxi Province, all members of the same family, are being investigated after one was found to have two hukou, or residency permits, while another owned 11 houses.

Zhang Yan, an official with the Party disciplinary watchdog in Yuncheng City, had one hukou in Yuncheng and another in Beijing under the pseudonym of Dong Yan, yesterday's Beijing Times reported.[File photo]

Zhang Yan, an official with the Party disciplinary watchdog in Yuncheng City, had one hukou in Yuncheng and another in Beijing under the pseudonym of Dong Yan, yesterday's Beijing Times reported.

Zhang's husband, Sun Hongjun, who was sacked as police chief in Xiaxian County last February, helped her get a fake hukou during his term in order to facilitate buying houses and transfer capital, a whistleblower's online post said.

Zhang is said to live in a residential complex in Beijing's Zhongguancun area, but neighbors said they rarely saw the family, the newspaper reported.

The whistleblower also said that Zhang's father-in-law, Sun Taiping, who was once the city's finance bureau director, owned 11 houses in China, at least two of them in Beijing.

According to the online posts, he asked a coal transportation company to buy him a villa worth more than 4 million yuan (US$643,200) in Sanya, Hainan Province. It was also claimed that he coerced several companies to send vehicles, including an 800,000-yuan Toyota MPV, to his children for long-term use.

Both Beijing and Yuncheng officials declined to comment.