40-year-old woman stages fake wedding with ‘rich’ man to defraud relatives of ₹12.8 crore | Trending
In a case that has left the social media in disbelief, a 40-year-old Shanghai woman, Meng, devised an elaborate scheme to defraud her relatives of 12 million yuan ( ₹12.8 crore). The incident, reported Shanghai TV in January, traces back to 2014, when Meng’s small real estate agency collapsed. The court sentenced the woman to 12 years and six months in prison for contract fraud. (Pexel) Facing financial ruin, Meng concocted a plan to exploit her relatives’ trust. She hitchhiked and proposed to the driver of a random car, a married man surnamed Jiang, convincing him to stage a fake wedding. She explained that her parents were pressuring her to marry due to her age. Jiang agreed, and the two held a wedding ceremony, during which Jiang used a pseudonym, reported the South China Morning Post. SchemeMeng portrayed Jiang to her relatives as a prominent real estate developer with connections that enabled him to procure properties at significantly reduced prices. To lend credibility to her claims, Meng purchased a small flat valued at one million yuan ( ₹1.07 crore) and sold it to her cousin at half the price. She then persuaded this cousin to falsely inform other relatives that he had secured the property at a 50% discount due to Meng and Jiang’s connections. Also read: Delhi: Woman fakes pregnancy, abducts ba from hospital to dupe in-laws; held To further the ruse, Meng escorted her relatives to showrooms of new residential developments, promising them discounts of 5,000 yuan ( ₹53,000) per square meter—approximately 20% below the market rate. At least five relatives fell victim to Meng’s deception, entrusting her with substantial sums to acquire these purportedly discounted flats. Some even sold their exing homes in anticipation of upgrading to better properties. For years, Meng stalled her relatives, claiming that arranging the discounts required time. Between 2018 and 2019, she rented apartments for them, falsely presenting these as the properties they had purchased. When pressed for property ownership certificates, she dismissed their concerns, stating it was “temporarily impossible” to obtain such documents for discounted properties. The scheme unravelled when one victim, growing suspicious, contacted the actual property developer and discovered that the flat she occupied was not regered in her name. Another victim, Meng’s cousin, had invested over 100,000 yuan ( ₹1.07 lakh) to decorate and furnish a rented apartment, believing it was his own. The court sentenced Meng to 12 years and six months in prison for contract fraud. Jiang, the fake husband, received a six-year sentence for signing house-leasing contracts with the real property owners. The cousin who colluded lying to other relatives was handed a five-year prison term. Also read: Single Chinese women are taking maternity photos with fake ba bumps
