Chinese prosecutors have charged the wife of former senior Communist Party official Bo Xilai and a family aide with the murder of a British businessman.

China's official news media say Bo Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun were charged Thursday with the intentional homicide of Neil Heywood in the eastern city of Hefei. The trial date has not been set.

The Xinhua news agency reported that results of an investigation show that Gu and her son had conflicts with Heywood over “economic interests.” It said the politician's wife worried about Heywood's threat to her son's personal security and poisoned him with the help of Zhang. The British businessman died in November.

Bo Xilai was a rising star in the Chinese Communist Party, serving as party chief of the city of Chongqing until authorities removed him from the post in March as part of a massive corruption probe.

The scandal erupted in February, when a longtime family aide fled to a U.S. consulate and made accusations of Gu's involvement in the Heywood murder. Bo is under house arrest.