Two post-80s young women in Fujian were sentenced by the province's higher people's court yesterday after swindling over RMB10 million from a wealthy Fujian magnate named Mr. Zhang - a feat they acomplished by claiming that one of them was the daughter of a former government official as well as Bill Gates' ex-wife.
The two young women, surnamed Zheng and Chen, got to know each other through modeling work, and in October 2012 Zheng got in touch with Mr. Zhang, a wealthy tycoon and recent divorcee.
Learning that Zhang was seeking connections to high places (like almost everyone in the country), Zheng arranged a meeting between him and Chen, whom she introduced as "Aifeng" - the unofficial but popular Chinese name for Apple's iPhone.
Zheng claimed that Miss iPhone was searching for true love after her recent divorce from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Whether her name contributed to the breakdown of their relationship or she changed it to spite her ex-husband remains unclear.
Mr. Zhang liked what he saw but wasn't convinced about her back story, so Zheng showed him a Photoshop job of Chen and a former government official. “Aifeng is a test-tube baby," she explained, "so her identity is confidential.” With a bulletproof explanation like that, Zhang finally let his guard down.
The duo made quick work frittering away his fortune until the next year, when Zhang, sharp as ever, became cognizant of the fact that maybe Miss iPhone wasn't the test-tube guanerdai ex-wife of the world's richest man, and reported the case to local police.
One month later, Zheng and Chen were apprehended in Zhejiang and charged with fraud. Yesterday, the higher people's court of Fujian Province sentenced Zheng to 13 years in prison and fined her RMB1 million, while Chen was sentenced to 11 years and fined RMB800,000.
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