A quite ordinary-sounding cashier in Shanghai has shocked many after she quietly embezzled nearly 17 million yuan (about RM10 million) from her company over 6 years, all to fuel a lifestyle filled with cosmetic surgery, luxury goods, high-stakes gambling, and designer showmanship.
The 41-year-old, known by the alias “Wang Jing”, earned around 8,000 yuan (RM4,720) a month working for a flower-and-gardening services firm started in 2018 by someone surnamed Xu.
From around 2019 to mid‑2025, Wang used her access to company funds to siphon money for lavish uses. She reportedly spent about 300,000 yuan (RM177,000) four times each year on cosmetic procedures. That alone added up to roughly 1.2 million yuan (RM708,000) annually just on beauty enhancements.
“I am blinded by vanity”
But the surgeries weren’t her only indulgence. Each year she splurged around 2 million yuan (RM1.2 million) on luxury goods… think diamond bracelets worth over 100,000 yuan (RM59,000) a piece, exotic crocodile-skin handbags, the kinds of pieces that scream “look at me!”. And if that wasn’t enough, she would jet off to Macau casinos to gamble, pushing her fortune further beyond reality’s grip.
(Source: Weibo)
“I am blinded by vanity. I just want to make myself look better. I enjoy being praised and looking young”, Wang reportedly said.
How did she even pull this off?
To manage payments, Xu and Wang created an online banking system, with Wang given full control over it. Xu, who had hired a professional accounting firm and could track the company’s finances through her phone, felt confident everything was in order and trusted Wang completely.
Unbeknownst to her, Wang had been quietly using the company’s account like her own private bank, diverting funds to support her lavish lifestyle in order to appear wealthy on social media. She later admitted that her only goal at work was to funnel company money into her personal account for her own spending.
The company didn’t even notice!
The scheme unraveled this year when tax authorities made an unannounced raid at her workplace. The findings triggered a broader investigation, peeling back years of unchecked withdrawals and secret spending. Authorities uncovered that over 6 years, she had misappropriated nearly 17 million yuan (RM10 million) in total.
(Source: Weibo)
Due to the empty company’s accounts Xu had to use her personal savings to cover employee social security payments.
According to South China Morning Post, Wang Jing has been charged for embezzlement and fraud, and the case is ongoing, but the public reaction on Chinese social media has been fierce. Many users are gawking at the sheer scale: how a modestly paid cashier pulled this off unnoticed for years. Others are digging into the company’s internal control failures as after all, this didn’t happen overnight.
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