Official dismissed for son's lavish wedding

A village official in Beijing who was removed from his post after holding a luxurious wedding for his son has total assets worth more than 100 million yuan ($16.43 million), Legal Weekly reported.

Ma Linxiang, former deputy director of the Qingheying village committee in the capital's Chaoyang district, reportedly held a wedding for his son for three consecutive days during the National Day holiday. The wedding on the third day was held in the China National Convention Center. The cost of the wedding was an estimated 1.6 million yuan. Ma also invited various celebrities, according to the report.

Since the report's release, Ma has been dismissed from his post.

Several villagers said Ma's total assets were worth more than 100 million yuan, and his three-member family has several luxury cars and several apartments in Beijing, including two affordable houses and two 300-square meter villas .

A villager also said a relative of Ma and an accountant worked at the wedding to collect red envelopes with cash, which they sorted with a currency detector.

Another villager told the reporter that Ma got rich from the land acquisition of the village for the building of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The local village committee charged trucks dumping soil on the land of the village 40 yuan to 100 yuan from 2003 to 2006 and sometimes trucks came thousands of times a day, a villager said.

The villagers found, however, the total money earned from the trucks dumping soil was only 400,000 yuan.

Villagers also said affordable houses intended for the villagers were sold by the village committee.