A MAN surnamed Zhou was cheated out of 27 million yuan (US$4.34 million) when attempting to post bail for his father, Zhou Weisi, a disgraced official suspected of corruption, whose properties are allegedly worth more than 2 billion yuan.

    Two men, who allegedly cheated Zhou out of the money by promising to post bail for Zhou Weisi, were arrested by police, Chinese-language media reported over the weekend.

    Zhou Weisi, a former official at the Nanlian Village community in Longgang District, was exposed via online posts for allegedly taking bribes. He also allegedly possessed more than 80 properties, including villas, factories, buildings and luxury cars, in the 2012 online posts.

    In an interview with the media, Zhou Weisi admitted that he owned more than 10 luxury cars, including Mercedes and Porsche, and six of the residential properties listed on the online posts, but said he gained the properties before his tenure.

    The investigating department said Zhou Weisi declared as many as 76 residential properties and the prosecutors placed the case on file for investigation and prosecution in January 2013. The police have detained Zhou Weisi since then.

    Soon after the detainment one of Zhou’s relatives approached him and suggested he post bail for his father by using the relative’s personal connections, the Phoenix TV website reported.

    Under the arrangement of this relative, Zhou met Luo Xuhong, a man who claimed to be a staff member with a powerful government department and could guarantee bail for Zhou Weisi.

    Zhou and Luo reached an agreement Jan. 22 in which Zhou would pay 20 million yuan for Luo to sway the higher officials to post bail.

    The errand did not go smoothly and after a few months Zhou’s father did not get bail. Luo lied to Zhou and said he was still trying to deal with the case and asked Zhou to pay another 7 million yuan for another “important official” named Xu Hong in April 2013.

    However, Luo and Xu did not get Zhou’s father bail as they promised. Zhou finally realized that he had been cheated for nine months after his father was arrested and reported the fraud to police in September 2013.

    The police put the case on record and detained Luo and Xu for fraud and for using fake identities in March this year.

    The bribery case of Zhou Weisi was heard twice in February and May last year but the judges have not given out any verdicts yet.

    (Zhang Qian)