Shanghai woman jailed for Staging Fake Wedding with a man she met while hitchhiking and deceiving her own relatives into investing large sums of money in fraudulent property deals.
The 40-year-old, surnamed Meng, convinced her family that her newfound husband was a wealthy real estate businessman who had access to exclusive property discounts. Over time, she managed to swindle her relatives out of $1.6 million before the deception unraveled.
Woman Jailed For Staging Fake Wedding
Meng’s fraudulent scheme began after her small real estate agency collapsed, leaving her desperate for money. To regain financial stability, she concocted an elaborate scam, which started with finding a man willing to pose as her wealthy husband. While hitchhiking, she met Jiang, a driver who agreed to participate in her charade.
She convinced him that her family was pressuring her to marry due to her age and proposed that they stage a wedding. Jiang accepted, and the couple went ahead with a fake wedding ceremony, complete with family attendance and celebrations.
To make the scheme appear more authentic, Meng introduced Jiang as a successful businessman involved in large infrastructure projects.
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She claimed that he had influential connections in the real estate sector and could acquire properties at discounted prices. The elaborate deception laid the foundation for her larger scam, targeting her own relatives under the pretense of lucrative real estate deals.
A Web of Lies and Fraudulent Deals
Meng did not stop at a staged wedding. She further reinforced her fabricated story by purchasing a small flat worth Rs 1.2 crore ($137,000) and selling it at half the price to one of her cousins.
To ensure her deception was believable, she persuaded this cousin to spread the word about the “fantastic deal” he had secured through Meng and Jiang’s supposed real estate connections.
With credibility established, Meng took her relatives to new residential property showrooms and claimed she could negotiate an exclusive price reduction of Rs 61,000 ($700) per square meter.
Her relatives, convinced that they were getting a once-in-a-lifetime deal, eagerly handed over large sums of money, hoping to buy flats at a significant discount. Some even went as far as selling their existing properties to invest in the fraudulent offers.
For years, Meng stalled the transactions by making excuses about bureaucratic hurdles and construction delays. To keep the illusion alive, she rented apartments for her relatives and passed them off as the properties they had purchased. However, as time passed and no ownership documents were provided, suspicion grew among her family members.
The Scam Unravels and Legal Consequences
The deception came to light when one of Meng’s relatives decided to verify the legitimacy of the property purchases by directly inquiring with the real estate developers. The truth was soon revealed—none of the properties Meng claimed to have purchased existed in her or her relatives’ names. Even the apartment she lived in was not owned by her.
As the extent of the scam unraveled, legal action was taken against Meng and her accomplices. She was charged with contract fraud and sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison.
Jiang, her fake husband, was sentenced to six years for his role in signing fraudulent lease agreements. Additionally, the cousin who had helped convince other family members to invest in the fake deals received a five-year sentence for his involvement.
The case highlights the dangers of blind trust, even among family members, and serves as a stark warning against elaborate financial frauds. Meng’s downfall not only led to her imprisonment but also devastated the financial stability of several of her relatives, who lost significant amounts of money in pursuit of a dream that never existed.
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