BEIJING (REUTERS) - China will prosecute the former chairman of state-owned conglomerate China Resources Holding on suspicion of corruption after accusing him on crimes including embezzlement, the anti-graft watchdog said on Friday (Sept 11).

Song Lin was sacked last year after coming under investigation for suspected "serious violation of discipline", the usual terminology for corruption.

Song took bribes, used public funds for personal expenses like playing golf and is an adulterer, the ruling Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on its website in a brief statement.

Party members can be punished for adultery as they are supposed to be upstanding members of society. The charge is frequently levelled at high-ranking graft suspects as a way of showing they are morally degenerate and deserve punishment.

His case has been transferred to the legal authorities, the watchdog said, meaning he will face prosecution.

A former company vice-chairman, Wang Shuaiting, will also face charges after being accused of similar crimes, the watchdog added.

Both men have been expelled from the party, it said.

The state prosecutor said separately that it had approved the detention of both men and had begun to build cases against them.

It was not possible to reach either of them for comment and not clear if they have lawyers.

China Resources Holdings is a holding company for a group of energy, land and consumer businesses in mainland China and Hong Kong, including China Resources Gas, China Resources Cement and China Resources Power.

China's top anti-corruption body had been investigating China Resources Holdings and its units for several months as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on graft by President Xi Jinping, who has pledged to tackle high-ranking "tigers" as well as lowly "flies".