Yang Xiancai, former executive director of the Guangdong High People's Court, has been under the investigation of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the country's top graft buster, a local newspaper reported.

"I haven't seen him in the past 10 days, not even at important court meetings," an official with the court, who asked for anonymity, told China Daily yesterday afternoon.

"We had no idea where he was until we heard the news from the local media this morning," he said.

Unfortunately, all efforts to contact the court publicity official yesterday failed.

Yang, 58, was taken away by the CCDI on June 28 while away on business, according to Nanfang Metropolis Daily, which also reported Yang's story yesterday.

The alleged reasons are believed to be either corrupt auctions and trade dealings in connection with Zhongcheng Plaza, one of the nation's largest property projects that remained unfinished for over a decade, or his intention to seek bribes from an agent involved in an economic case that Yang executed, the news report said.

A Guangzhou lawyer surnamed Lu, who claimed to have been acquainted with Yang, told China Daily that Yang was iron-fisted when he was director of the court executive of the bureau from 2001 to 2007.

 "It was while he was executive director that the Guangdong High People's Court hammered out a series of measures to deal with cases hard to execute," Lu said.

Yang's measures included assigning non-local courts cases that were hardly executable, limiting debtors' consumption level and encouraging and rewarding tip-offs on obligors' properties, Lu said.

"While enhancing efficiency, the measures also gave Yang greater power and made it easier for him to abuse it," the lawyer said.

As the nation's economic powerhouse, Guangdong tops other provinces, cities and regions in terms of execution of lawsuits and property confiscations.

Courts in the booming Pearl River Delta cities alone executed 170,165 lawsuit cases last year, accounting for 71 percent of the total in Guangdong province. And property confiscations executed across the province were worth 45 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) in 2007, according to official statistics.