Then, on August 27, 2013, the Company announced that the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which oversees China's state companies, launched an investigation of three senior officials, Vice-President and Secretary to the Board of Directors, Li Hualin, Executive Director and Vice-President Ran Xinquan, and PetroChina chief geologist Wang Daofu, for "severe breaches of discipline", a code word for corruption in the PRC. The company further reported that all three officials had resigned their positions effective immediately. As a result of this investigation, trading in PetroChina shares was halted on August 27, 2013.