Compiled by  DIYANA PFORDTEN, C.ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

A BANK employee from Zheng­zhou, China, was sentenced to life imprisonment for selling 160mil yuan (RM94.7mil) worth of fake wealth management products, China Press reported.

She spent nearly half of it on tips to male livestreamers.

Based on a verdict from the Zhengzhou Intermediate People’s Court, bank relationship manager Xi Wei had sold fictitious investment products between 2009 and 2022 which guaranteed the principal sum and promised high returns.

Some 31 customers trusted her and handed her a total of 160mil yuan for investment.

The court heard that she spent more than 60mil yuan (RM35.5mil) on credits on a livestreaming platform and another 10mil yuan (RM5.92mil) on luxury goods, cars, clothing and two houses.

Xi currently still owes her “investors” 90mil yuan (RM53.3mil) and was sentenced to prison for life.

A source close to the case claimed that following her failed marriage, Xi would spend most of her time watching male livestrea­mers and send them tips on the platform.

On one occasion, she even tipped one male livestreamer just so he would spend eight hours straight singing for her, the source claimed.

When interviewed, a source from the livestreaming platform said that Xi has five accounts on the platform and has sent 32,442 tips to 2,797 livestreamers, with each tip costing an average of 197.35 yuan (RM116.88).

As a result of Xi’s actions, the Chinese authorities are also taking action against the livestreaming platform.

They deemed that the company should have flagged Xi’s actions as spending 60mil yuan on credits was not considered “reasonable consumer beha­viour”.

(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)