Chinese president Xi Jinping is in the midst of a major initiative to enforce stricter standards of behavior in his country via actions ranging from high-profile crackdowns on drug use to bans on the televised depiction of one-night stands and adultery to prominent prosecutions of corrupt government officials. It’s from that latter category—specifically, the search of a home belonging to an official named Ma Chaoqun who’s been arrested for graft—that the following eyebrow-raising details arise:
China’s anti-graft watchdog has discovered 37 kg (82 lbs) of gold, documents for 68 houses and 120 million yuan ($19.6 million) in cash in the home of a Communist Party official who is being investigated for corruption, state media said.
This isn’t the haul from the bust of a gang headquarters, this is the haul from one guy’s house—80 pounds of gold, $20 million in cash, and the deeds to 68 (68!) houses. Ma Chaoqun was (allegedly) very good at graft (until he wasn’t).
