Cai Yingbo

    A WOMAN who allegedly swindled more than 600,000 yuan (US$81,081) from a German engineer over the past year was said to be in a Shenzhen hospital waiting to give birth, according to the German’s lawyer.

    “We are not sure exactly where she is now, but we were told by the housing estate property management office that she was seen going in and out of her apartment in the Junjing Haoting housing estate in Liantang a couple of days ago and she is pregnant,” said Gong Yongfang, lawyer for the German, only known as Milan. He did not want to disclose his last name.

    Gong said it was less likely that Dai Hongjuan, 35, who had been calling herself Ah Juan, was in her hometown at the moment. “We are pretty sure that she is still in Shenzhen and we will try to locate her to retrieve the money,” he said.

    Dai gave her Chinese name as Qiu Ning and English name as Anna Qiu on a matchmaking Web site: www.matchdoctor.com on which she claimed to be looking for a reliable man aged 35 to 70 to be her husband.

    Milan, 57, who has never married, met Dai on the Web site last April. After months of communicating by e-mail, Milan flew to Shenzhen to meet Dai in September last year.

    “I was amazed by her beauty when I saw her in my hotel room in Luohu District. And her English is very good,” he said, adding that it was love at first sight.

    During Milan’s eight-day stay in Shenzhen, Dai spent 60,000 yuan of his money on jewelry and expensive handbags and clothes by taking him shopping every day. They slept together twice before Milan headed back to Frankfurt on Sept. 22.

    He said they wrote each other e-mails almost every day after he returned to Germany.

    “She called me husband in her e-mails and we were so much in love that I proposed marriage to her,” he said.

    Dai agreed to marry him on the condition that he helped her pay her 1-million-yuan mortgage for her apartment in Shenzhen. Milan started transferring money into Dai’s bank account from October 2006. He claimed he had given her more than 600,000 yuan by February this year when he lost contact with her.

    He came to Shenzhen last month to try to find his former “girlfriend,” in an attempt to retrieve his money.

    “To put her in jail is the last thing I want to do. I just want my money back,” said Milan.

    According to Gong, Milan was a very shy man but well-mannered. He said Milan would return to Frankfurt on Feb. 12 next year.

    In a separate development, three American Chinese yesterday claimed that they had been swindled by Dai following the revelations by Milan.

    “A Chinese American who is now living in Shenzhen told us that he had been swindled by Dai Hongjuan after her scam with Milan was published by a newspaper,” said Gong.

    According to the Chinese American, who refused to give his name, two of his countrymen had allegedly also fallen victim to Dai, said Gong, adding that one of the men had been swindled out of his retirement pension.