Twenty five government officials who had accepted gifts from a controversial real estate developer in Nanyang City, Henan Province, have been disciplined, while a subdistrict Party secretary was sacked.

The Yi’an Real Estate Development Co has been in the headlines recently after a group of people with HIV tried to put pressure on residents and scare them away.

The Nanyang City disciplinary authority conducted a two-day investigation after a New Year’s guest list of the company was published which included the names of 31 local government officials, China News Service reported yesterday.

The company had organized a Chinese New Year gala at a hotel on January 26 this year and had invited officials from Meixi Subdistrict and Wuolong District.

A total of 25 government and community officials and another four from non-governmental organizations attended the event. They were all presented with a red envelop with a voucher worth 500 yuan to be used at a local shopping center.

The 25 government officials were punished. All the 29 people also returned the gifts.

On Monday, Li Gejun, deputy head of the propaganda office in Wolong, told state broadcaster CCTV that the Yi’an Real Estate Company had hired the patients “in order to achieve its goal of speedy demolition.”