Investigators looking into Shanghai's pension fund scandal have made an "important breakthrough" and finished their probes into most of the people involved, the Legal Daily reported today.

The Jilin People's Procuratorate was assigned by Supreme People's Procuratorate of China to investigate the case, and the Jilin People's Higher Court is preparing to hold trials, the report said.

Shanghai launched an anti-corruption campaign last August with investigations into misuse of the city's pension fund, which have already implicated many government officials and company executives, including former Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu and the former head of Shanghai's biggest soccer club and Formula One circuit Yu Zhifei.

Chen is in jail awaiting trial on corruption charges, Gan Yisheng, secretary-general of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, said early last month.

Chen was expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from all government posts in July for his alleged involvement in the pension fund scandal.

Chen allegedly misused his power to support the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security in illegally granting huge loans from the Shanghai social security fund to private companies.

(Shanghai Daily September 10, 2007)