Fake PLA general exposed ‘selling entrance to military academies’

China’s national television broadcaster has exposed a fake PLA general who allegedly defrauded families by more than 3.8 million yuan (HK$4.81 million) by pretending to broker admissions to top military training programmes in exchange for hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Dong Xianwei, 58, was arrested in March after he was discovered posing as a major general who controlled staffing positions within the military in Beijing, a CCTV news programme revealed on Tuesday.

He was reported to have allegedly defrauded six families by promising to allocate their children admission to military academies that he said would lead to an army job placement, in exchange for a 200,000 yuan payment per student that allowed them to bypass routine qualification examinations.

Only after the students were successfully enrolled at two institutions in Shijiazhuang city in Hebei province with Dong’s “help”, did they discover that the schools only provided ordinary adult education programmes which did not guarantee any job placement within the PLA upon graduation.

A video clip in the news cast showed Dong, who was reported to only have a middle school qualification, confessing to police that he had illegally obtained a set of PLA uniforms and had forged general badges and paperwork.

Police eventually discovered that since 2005, Dong had collected over 3.8 million yuan from 19 individuals who went to him for “help” on personnel arrangement within the military.