I did not use Red Cross money, says scandal girl

Guo Meimei, the young woman who sparked a furore by claiming to be a manager affiliated with the Red Cross Society of China while flaunting her extravagant lifestyle online, says her possessions are not tied to the charity group.

Guo, 20, who previously showed off her Hermes-toting and Maserati-driving lifestyle on Weibo, a Twitter-style microblog service, said she did not use donations intended for the poor and needy to fund her expensive tastes. She made her comments in an interview on Wednesday with economist Larry Lang for Larry Lang Live, a satellite news programme. Only two of the Hermes bags are authentic: one belongs to her mother, and the other was from Wang Jun, a Shenzhen real estate entrepreneur whom she called her 'foster father'.

Wang, 42, resigned in June as a board member of Zhonghong Boai Assets Management, a commercial company that organises charity activities on behalf of the society.

The company was one of many found to have had murky deals with a shadowy business arm of the Red Cross society, called the 'Red Cross China Business System', which contracted Zhonghong Boai to market Red Cross first aid vans across the mainland.

'Wang bought me the Maserati,' Guo said. 'A Mini Cooper was a gift from my mum for my 18th birthday.'

Guo said that Wang did not make any profit from his 10 million yuan (HK$12.11 million) investment in Zhonghong Boai, as the company had not opened for business yet.

The money for the Maserati had no links with the Red Cross, Guo said, adding that Wang had planned to withdraw from the company.