Man pretends to be 300-year-old Chinese emperor, swindles woman out of more than 47m yuan

Two men in southern China have been found guilty of tricking a wealthy woman out of more than 47 million yuan (HK$55 million) by one claiming to be a 300-year-old Qing Dynasty emperor, the Southern Metropolis Daily reports.

The woman, Zheng Xueju, wanted to establish a village bank in 2012 in Shenzhen, Guandong province. She met supposed financier Wan Jianmin and Liu Qianzhen, who said he was the Qianlong emperor.

Liu said he was still alive after drinking ‘the elixir of life”, and had access to “imperial” savings.

Wan told her he was able to “unfreeze the royal money”.

The pair initially convinced Zheng that they needed 2.22 million yuan to access the royal money and purchase jade cabbage sculptures, which she provided.