A WOMAN stood trial at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Wednesday for allegedly scamming 17.27 million yuan (US$2.6 million) from a Taiwan woman by posing as the daughter of Wang Shi, founder of Vanke, the Shenzhen-based real estate developer, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday.

    The woman, identified as Wang Sitong, 36, was introduced to the plaintiff, Huang Pinjing, by a realtor in 2014, according to the report. Both Wang and Huang lived in the same luxury housing compound in Luohu District. Wang introduced herself as the daughter of Wang Shi, and took over 17 million yuan from Huang and promised to help solve a land dispute in Shenzhen.

    At the trial, Wang denied the charges, saying Huang only filed the lawsuit because she was no longer useful in dealing with Huang’s family property.

    The court heard that Wang only paid 400,000 yuan to a lawyer to legally deal with the land, which was frozen by the court in January 2015. The rest of the money was almost spent by Wang, with only about 80,000 yuan recovered by law enforcement.

    Wang also denied that she posed as the daughter of Wang Shi and a high-ranking official. She even said the market price of the land, located adjacent to Pingshan High-speed Railway Station, is up to 1.5 billion yuan now, compared to which 17 million yuan is little.

    Both Huang and one of Huang’s friends said Wang did pose as the daughter of Wang Shi. When Huang searched for Wang Shi’s daughter in Baidu, it yielded a different result. Wang explained that her father had asked the search engine to store false information in order to protect her from kidnappers.

    The report said Huang is the daughter of Huang Wencai, the honorary director of Taiwan Merchants Association in Shenzhen branch. Huang’s family owns Ali Mountain Flavour Foods Co., which had a piece of land in Pingshan. Yet in Sept. 2014, Gu Zhuoheng, chairman of Sing Pao Media Enterprises in Hong Kong, assumed the role of the company’s owner. In fear of Gu devouring her family’s property, Huang asked Wang to help freeze the land.

    The trial continues.

    (Zhang Xiaoyi)