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SHANGHAI - A young Chinese billionairess nicknamed "Wealthy Miss Dongyang" has been detained in eastern China suspected of illegally raising funds to build her fortune, official media said today.
Wu Ying, 26, head of the Bense Group in Zhejiang province, was being held by police from the industrial city of Dongyang, accused of using the money to establish roughly a dozen companies over the past several months, newspapers said.
She went on to amass a fortune of up to 3.8 billion yuan ($712 million).
At one of her last public appearances in late January, Wu said her money was legal and obtained from her earlier small businesses, including cosmetics and construction materials companies, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported.
"All my money is clean," she was quoted as saying. "Maybe it's because I'm a woman and young."
Wu was not born into wealth. She came from a peasant family and few had paid any attention to the high school graduate until she started investing big money and setting up over a dozen of companies, the Shanghai Securities News said.
Wu is believed to have solicited funds from businessmen to create a conglomerate that spanned real estate, tourism, e-commerce and entertainment, the newspaper added.
She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Wu's detention comes just two weeks after she denied rumours that her wealth came from either futures trading, an inheritance from a South Asian warlord, arm sales or smuggling.
Wu is one of many Chinese entrepreneurs this decade who have amassed fortunes in the space of a few years and then run into legal difficulties as authorities investigate the source of their success.
- REUTERS
