A court in China has sentenced a woman to prison for orchestrating a fake marriage to scam her relatives out of millions.
A woman named Meng staged a marriage with a man she met by chance, portraying him as a wealthy real estate businessman to her family in order to swindle them out of $1.6 million (over 447.4 million Pakistani rupees).
According to local media reports, 40-year-old Meng from Shanghai tricked a driver named Jiang, whom she met accidentally, into marrying her by claiming that her parents were worried about her advancing age.
Jiang agreed to the marriage, and a wedding ceremony was held.
Meng then convinced her relatives that Jiang owned several major infrastructure projects in the country and had connections that could help them buy properties at lower prices.
To reinforce her claims, she even purchased a small apartment for $137,000 and sold it at half price to one of her cousins.
Persuaded by Meng’s elaborate scheme, at least five relatives handed over large sums of money to buy apartments, with some even selling their existing homes in hopes of acquiring better properties.
However, instead of actually buying them properties, Meng rented apartments and falsely claimed that her relatives were now the owners.
The scam was finally exposed when one suspicious relative contacted the actual property developer to verify the ownership.
The court sentenced Meng to 12 years and six months in prison, her fake husband Jiang to six years, and her cousin, who helped deceive the family, to five years behind bars.
