HK graveyard scam sees bodies dug up for cash: report

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

HONG KONG (AFP) — Hong Kong cemetery officials took bribes to allow bodies buried in the overcrowded city to be dug up from temporary graves before they were fully decomposed, the city's corruption body said.

A total of 18 senior cemetery managers, tombstone contractors and funeral agents have been arrested in connection with the racket, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement late Monday.

"ICAC enquiries revealed that the arrested serving and former staff of Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries had allegedly conspired together to solicit and accept monetary advantages from a number of tombstone contractors and funeral agents," it said.

"In return, the BMCPC staff were alleged to have allowed exhumation to...