Prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against a former Shanghai land official on charges of accepting bribes that totaled 5 million U.S. dollars.

Yin Guoyuan, former deputy director of the Shanghai Housing, Land and Resources Administration Bureau, was charged with accepting 36.7 million yuan and failing to account for the sources of 8.1 million yuan and 40,000 U.S. dollars in his possession.

Yin allegedly accepted the bribes himself or with his wife surnamed Chen from real estate development companies in return for favorable treatment in land use applications from 2000 to 2006, the No. 1 Branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate said.

Prosecutors also accused Yin of storing 52 military-issue bullets in his home.

Born in 1944, Yin served in the land and resources administrative bureau from 1995 until he retired in 2005 and became chairman of the Shanghai Land Institute.

He was arrested in April 2007.

The lawsuit was filed at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. The date of the trial is yet to be announced.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2008)
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