Su Xiangmao, founder of the Chinese mobile app WePhone, was extorted by his ex-wife Zhai Xinxin, leading to his suicide by jumping off a building in 2017.
On the 19th, the People’s Court of Haidian District in Beijing publicly sentenced Zhai Xinxin in a criminal case combined with a civil lawsuit on charges of extortion. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 100,000 yuan (about 59,000 MYR). The court also ordered the defendant surnamed Zhai to compensate economic losses totaling over 70,000 yuan (over 41,300 MYR) to the civil plaintiff surnamed Wei and others.
According to multiple previous Chinese media reports, in the early morning of September 7, 2017, Su Xiangmao, founder of the Chinese internet calling app WePhone, died after falling from a building. In his lengthy suicide note, he accused his ex-wife Zhai Xinxin of concealing her marital history, meeting him on a matchmaking website, and marrying him quickly. After he gave her property and assets worth several million yuan, he was then coerced into signing a divorce compensation agreement of 10 million yuan (about 5.9 million MYR). This led to a financial crisis in his company.
According to the trial of this case by the Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing, it was confirmed that Zhai Xinxin established a romantic relationship with Su Xiangmao in March 2017. In May of the same year, they purchased a property in Hainan Province valued at about 3.19 million yuan (about 1.88 million MYR), with Su paying the down payment. The two registered their marriage on June 7.
However, between July and September soon after, Zhai demanded a divorce, threatening to report Su and his company unless she received 10 million yuan as psychological damages and obtained the Hainan property. On July 18, Su was forced to pay Zhai 6.6 million yuan (about 3.89 million MYR) and transfer the property, but Zhai continued to threaten and demand money from him multiple times, eventually leading to his suicide on September 7. All illicit gains have now been returned.
The Beijing court judgment pointed out that Zhai Xinxin’s actions constituted the crime of extortion with an especially large amount involved. Evidence showed that the marriage lasted only 42 days, with no joint marital property, and the money extorted was Su’s personal assets. There was no civil legal basis for compensation or damages in the divorce. In order to obtain property, Zhai committed acts of extortion. The court, considering the nature, circumstances, and social harm of her crime, sentenced her accordingly and supported the civil plaintiffs’ compensation claims.