BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A former Chinese government official has been sentenced to death after a leaky toilet led police to a stash of cash he'd collected in bribes, state media reported.

Yan Dabin was the former director of transportation for Wushan County in southwest China. He was sentenced Friday for accepting bribes totaling 22.3 million yuan ($3.2 million) in exchange for awarding contracts for road and bridge construction, the news agency Xinhua said.

He was arrested after a resident called a police station to complain that water was leaking through the ceiling from the vacant apartment above. Yan owned the unit.

A police officer sent to help a maintenance worker enter the property discovered the cause of the overflowing toilet: eight soaked cardboard boxes containing 9.39 million yuan ($ 1.3 million), Xinhua said.

Yan's wife was sentenced to three years in prison after she was found guilty of laundering more than 9 million yuan ($ 1.3 million) in a series of house purchases, the news agency said.

Beijing has been trying to rein in corruption after a series of several highly-publicized corruption cases involving officials who steal.

All About China