The Beijing police have announced the results of their initial investigation into the relationship between former K-pop boy band EXO member and Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu and influencer Du Meizhu.
Du Meizhu accused Kris Wu of luring girls including underage ones into sex. He denied the allegations but the scandal has cost him brand endorsement deals such as Lancome and Kiehl's.
The Beijing police’s Chaoyang branch posted the details of its investigation on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo on July 22.
They said that at 10 p.m. on Dec. 5, 2020, Feng, who was Kris Wu’s acting manager at the time, invited Du Meizhu, 18, to his home supposedly for an audition for a female lead in a music video.
Kris Wu attended the party where more than 10 people played board games and drank together. By 7 a.m. the next day, the attendees left one after another. After drinking, Du Meizhu stayed at Wu’s house and they had sex.
In the afternoon, Du Meizhu left Wu’s home after having a meal. Wu and Du Meizhu added each other on the WeChat app.
“On Dec. 8, Wu transferred 32,000 RMB to Du Meizhu for online shopping. They maintained contact on WeChat until April 2021,” the report stated.
In June 2021, Du Meizhu and her friend Liu, 19, discussed making public her relationship with Wu in order to boost her Internet popularity.
On June 2, Liu published a blog post about Wu "emotionally abusing" Du Meizhu, according to Twitter account Weibo Trending. Du Meizhu published three online posts from July 8 to 11. On July 13, male writer Xu contacted Du Meizhu for profit. The two planned for Xu to write 10 Weibo posts, which Du Meizhu would publish on Weibo starting on July 16.
The Beijing police also revealed that a man was arrested for trying to defraud Wu and Du Meizhu.
On July 14, Chaoyang police received a report from Wu’s mom claiming they had been blackmailed by Du Meizhu. On that day, the police investigated. In the process, suspect Liu, 23, was identified and arrested in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province on July 18.
Based on investigation, in June 2021, Liu saw the internet hype about Du Meizhu and Wu and came up with the idea of pretending to be a related person to defraud both parties.
During the period, Liu made a fictitious female identity and gained Du Meizhu’s trust by pretending to be another victim of Wu. Liu used the nickname “DDX” on WeChat to contact Du Meizhu and obtain information about her and Wu.
On July 10, Liu used the information he obtained and contacted Wu’s lawyer and pretended to be Du Meizhu and demanded 3 million RMB (about $463,000) in compensation under the pretext of reaching a settlement between the two parties.
Liu sent the bank accounts of Du Meizhu and his to Wu’s lawyer. At the same time, Liu used the WeChat account of "Beijing Fanshi Culture Media", claiming to be Wu lawyer, and negotiated with Du Meizhu to reach a settlement of 3 million RMB in compensation, but the two parties did not sign a settlement agreement.
On July 11, Wu’s mom transferred 500,000 RMB (about $77,000) to Du Meizhu in two transactions. Liu, who did not get the money, continued to pretend to be Du Meizhu and attempted to ask for the remaining 2.5 million RMB ($386,000) from Wu’s lawyer.
Later, he pretended to be Wu’s lawyer and asked Du Meizhu to sign a settlement agreement, or otherwise, he would get back the 500,000 RMB that she received. After Du Meizhu agreed to refund, Liu pretended to be Wu’s lawyer and provided his Alipay account to Du Meizhu, who transferred 180,000 ($27,800) to the account.
After Liu was arrested, he confessed to the crime of fraud, the Beijing police said. At present, Liu has been criminally detained by Chaoyang police.
The police said they are still investigating the allegation that Wu tricked young women into having sexual relations with him, as reported by netizens and through online posts.