'Uncle House' sentenced for graft

HEFEI - A court in east China's Anhui province sentenced a local official known as "Uncle House" to twenty years in jail for embezzlement, abuse of power and taking bribes on Friday, the latest case amid China's ongoing anti-corruption push.

Lujiang County Court also confiscated the personal assets of Fang Guangyun, worth 150,000 yuan ( 24,136 U.S. dollars).

Fang, former secretary of the neighborhood committee of the Communist Party of China in Zhanbei Community, Hefei City, was exposed in late 2012 for illegally owning a number of resettlement houses, earning him the nickname "the Uncle House of Hefei".

Fang illegally obtained 18 properties and helped others acquire 45 houses when serving in public posts since 2005. He also accepted bribes totaling 60,000 yuan since 2007, according to the court.

Fang was yet another "Uncle House" nabbed in the national corruption purge. In 2013, Cai Bin, a former senior police officer with Guangzhou's Panyu District, was put behind the bars for accepting bribes, after a whistleblower claimed Cai owned 22 houses.