A total of 16 former senior executives with the State-owned food enterprise Wenzhou Cailanzi Group were prosecuted for graft, embezzlement, illegal distribution of State assets and bribery on Friday, according to the prosecutors' office of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

The corruption case at Wenzhou Cailanzi Group was the most serious of its kind in the city in the past two years, according to Xinhua News Agency.

As many as 47 people, including 10 county-level officials, were involved in the case, according to the prosecutors' office of Wenzhou.

Ying Guoquan, a founder and former president of Wenzhou Cailanzi Group, was allegedly involved in graft, embezzlement, illegal distribution of State-owned assets and bribery, involving more than 400 million yuan ($63 million).

Wenzhou Cailanzi Group is the largest enterprise for food production and processing in the city, supplying 98 percent of the vegetables, 80 percent of the soybean products and 60 percent of the seafood, according to the group's official website.

From 2003 to 2006, Ying took advantage of his position as a senior executive of the group to establish another company called Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co, with 80 percent of the shares owned by individuals and 20 percent owned by the State. Ying's son Ying Feihang was a large shareholder.

Through bribery and deception, Ying induced a city government official to alter a government circular to reclassify resettlement land for Wenzhou Cailanzi Group as land for Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co. In this way, Ying allegedly illegally acquired 21.67 hectares of land valued at 115.8 million yuan.

Feng Ming, the city government official who altered the circular, was prosecuted on Oct 12.

From 2005 to 2010, Ying took advantage of his position to hand over business of the Wenzhou Cailanzi Group including meat shipping, butchery services and vegetable exchanges, to Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co. The activities involved were valued at 105 million yuan.

Ying was also charged with embezzlement of 94 million yuan and illegal distribution of State-owned assets of 112 million yuan for the benefit of Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co.

In addition, Ying was charged with accepting bribes of 250,000 yuan from food vendors when he allocated stalls at food markets.

Ying's son, Ying Feihang, former executive deputy general manager of Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co, was charged with embezzlement.

Another 14 executives of the two companies were charged with graft and embezzlement.

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