Last week, Chinese Communist Party member Lei Zhengfu was forced out of his role as the boss of Chongqing’s Beibei District after a tape showing him having sex with an 18-year old mistress circulated online.

The tape was apparently made in 2007, and though Lei had claimed it was doctored, the party decided that it was not and he was sacked.

But there may be more than just the sexual proclivities of a politician in this story.

Now the citizen journalist who broke the story, Zhu Ruifeng, is claiming that the girl was offered up to Lei as part of a bribe for contracting work.

Shanghaiist summarizes Zhu's claim:

Between 2002 and 2006, while Lei was Dianjiang County Party Secretary, he allegedly took advantage of his position to grant a number of lucrative contracts to his brother's construction company, pocketing a large sum of money for himself in the process. By 2007, after Lei had been promoted to Vice Party Secretary of Chongqing's Jiulongpo District, Lei's personal fortune had grown to the extent that developers effectively found him impossible to bribe.

One developer discovered Lei's weakness for women however, and set about hiring a number of attractive young girls, all under 20-years-old, and using them to set a "honey trap" for Lei. The women, after becoming Lei's mistresses, would secretly video themselves having sex with the corrupt official, giving their employer leverage over Lei.

Zhu also claims to have sex tapes showing 5 other party members.

Even more intriguing is that Lei apparently went to his former boss Bo Xilai (whose name you should know) a few years ago, and confessed the whole thing to get out in front of the story.

Bottom line, this story could end up being about a lot more than sex.

For more background, see here >