* Corruption major concern for investors
* Malema is rising power-broker in ruling party
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG, July 31 (Reuters) - South African police are investigating a trust fund run by influential politician Julius Malema, who heads the ruling ANC's Youth League, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Other newspapers carried separate reports detailing new allegations about the lavish lifestyle of Malema, who has called for mines to be nationalised and white-owned farms to be seized.
The Sunday Times quoted a spokesman for an elite police unit known as the Hawks as saying it was gathering information to determine whether it could proceed with its investigation.
Among the information sought are cellphone and bank records, the newspaper reported. Police could not immediately be reached for comment.
"We are still trying to obtain information which will help us determine whether or not to continue with the investigation," Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times.
Investors in South Africa keep close tabs on Malema, whose racially charged, populist appeals to the poor black majority have raised concerns on whether the ANC will take up his calls to overhaul Africa's largest economy.
As ANC Youth League leader, Malema, 30, has no direct policymaking power. But the League, co-founded by Nelson Mandela, has long been a training ground for the leadership, and he is an influential political power broker.
The City Press newspaper, which last week alleged that the secret trust fund financed Malema's lifestyle, said he had paid 2 million rand (${esc.dollar}298,000) towards a house in the plush Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.
The paper cited the previous owner of the house, who said Malema had made a combination of cash deposits and a bank loan to pay the 3.6 million rand owed in total. Malema has claimed the house was fully mortgaged.
The Sunday Times, citing deed and other searches, also said he had made a 2 million rand cash payment on the house -- now demolished in preparation for the building of what local media has said will be a mansion costing up to 16 million rand.
And the Sunday Independent newspaper reported a mansion was being built for Malema's grandmother.
Malema has said the fund is a trust for charities.
"This trust they are talking about is a trust that continues to help the poorest of the poor. That trust has built churches ... houses for the poor," Malema was quoted in the Sunday Times as telling a gathering on Thursday.
Corruption is a major investor concern in South Africa. A police raid last week on the mines department and a firm linked to President Jacob Zuma's son has highlighted the use of political connections to amass wealth. (${esc.dollar}1 = 6.710 South African Rand) (Editing by Marius Bosch)
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