BEIJING (AP) – A man confessed to defrauding Chinese-Canadian pop singer Kris Wu after accusing a teenager of having sex with her while she was drunk, Beijing police said Thursday.
The announcement added an odd twist to a scandal that cost Wu endorsement deals with brands like Porsche and Bulgari. The former member of Korean boy group EXO denied the accusation, prompting a surge of support for the woman online and criticism from Wu.
A man who saw rumors of the incident online contacted the woman in June and obtained information that allowed her to pose as her lawyer, police said in a statement. He gave no indication that the woman was accused of participating in the fraud.
The man convinced Wu’s mother to send the woman 500,000 yuan ($ 77,000), then, posing as Wu’s lawyer, tried to persuade the woman to send the money to him, according to him. the press release. He said he tried unsuccessfully to obtain an additional 2.5 million yuan ($ 390,000) from the family.
The man, identified only by the last name Liu, was arrested in Nantong, near Shanghai, on Sunday after the singer’s mother complained to police that the family had been the victim of fraud, the statement said. from the Beijing Public Security Bureau. He said he confessed.
The woman had been quoted by the NetEase internet portal as saying that Wu had encouraged her to drink too much at a party in December and that she had woken up in bed. In a statement to his social media account, Wu said he met the woman but denied encouraging her to drink and said other parts of his account had not taken place.
The woman reportedly said that other women told her Wu seduced them with promises of jobs and other opportunities.
Police are investigating allegations that Wu “repeatedly cheated young women into sex,” the police statement said.
The brands severed ties with Wu in the aftermath of the NetEase report, reflecting their sensitivity to public opinion after the ruling Communist Party sparked anger at shoe and clothing brands in retaliation for Western news reporting human rights abuses in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region in the northwest. .
Wu, known in Chinese as Wu Yifan, grew up in Guangzhou in southern China and Vancouver, British Columbia. He played with EXO in 2012-14 and went on to launch a solo career.
As an actor, he appeared in 2017 in “XXX: Return of Xander Cage” and in two Chinese box office hits, “Mr. Six” and “Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back”.
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