A lottery chief is being investigated over claims that he profiteered to the tune of billions of yuan, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said yesterday.

He Wen, general manager of the China Lottery Online Co Ltd — a state-owned enterprise that provides online welfare lottery instant games — is being probed in connection with his stake in the business, according to officials.

He reportedly owned more than 50 percent of shares in China Lottery Online, which is against regulations.

The general manager obtained 2.7 billion yuan (US$435 million) of profit over the past 12 years, based on his proportion of equity, the Beijing Youth Daily reported, citing insiders who said the National Audit Office of China uncovered this.

From starting in 2002 to last year, the instant online games recorded sales of more than 130 billion yuan — accounting for more than 10 percent of welfare ticket sales of China.

Questions have also been asked about how He allocated contracts.

Instead of holding a bidding process in 2005, He gave the contract for supplying lottery sales terminals to a Guangdong-based company — which has since made profits of 1 billion yuan, the newspaper claimed.

Sales for China’s lottery reached 382.4 billion yuan in total last year — up 23 percent on a year earlier.

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