Fake PLA general exposed ‘selling entrance to military academies’
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 30 October, 2013, 2:07pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 30 October, 2013, 3:00pm
Chris Luo [email protected]
Screen grab of CCTV shows photo of Dong Xianwei who defrauded 3.8 million yuan by posing as a PLA major general. Photo: CCTV screen grab.
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.
Also revealed in the news programme, in a separate event, was the story of Liao Heping who posed as a major general under an assumed name, claiming he was the son-in-law of an influential central government leader.
With his fake identity, Liao was able to accumulate more than three million yuan within just two years, mainly from businessmen hoping to curry favour with him and benefit from his influence, the report said.
In one instance, Liao solicited 1.2 million yuan from one estate entrepreneur “to cover his mother’s medical treatment”.
Liao would carry a fake gun with him and carelessly brandish it in public to bolster his credentials, the newscast reported, citing a police detective in charge of the case.
