After reviewing this case, Hongshan Court believed that Zhang and Wang couple were guilty of joint crime. Recently, Zhang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the crimes of fraud and forging state organ certificates, while Wang was sentenced to 8 years in prison for fraud. The two were also fined 80,000 yuan additionally.
Last March 30, when Meng's wife was talking on the phone with Zhang, she felt that the voice in the mobile phone sounded very much like the "Minister of Education". This raised her vigilance until the case broke out. Afterwards, Zhang returned 1.02 million yuan.
According to reports (by reporter Wan Qin, correspondent Hong Fa, and intern Feng Jiayuan), a couple in Wuchang defrauded people by claiming they could help them enter university. They also used the voice-changing function of a magical sound mobile phone to impersonate the Minister of Education and the Dean of a college at Huazhong University of Science and Technology multiple times to increase the credibility of the scam, thereby defrauding 1.28 million yuan. It was learned yesterday that the Hongshan District Court sentenced this couple to 15 years and 8 years in prison respectively in the first trial.
In September 2007, Zhang called Meng as "Dean Shao", saying that the inspection team from the Ministry of Education came to Wuhan for work inspection, and the minister's wife asked him to prepare some hospitality fees. After hearing this, Meng believed it without doubt and transferred 170,000 yuan into the account designated by Zhang in two separate transactions. In March 2008, Zhang again claimed to be the Minister of Education and borrowed 500,000 yuan from Meng. According to statistics, she deceived 1.28 million yuan through similar means 15 times.
Zhang then used forged property certificates and land use right certificates to borrow 1.3 million yuan from Meng. In 2008, Meng's son took the college entrance examination but did not perform well. Knowing this, Zhang claimed that he had a good relationship with the Minister of Education and Dean Shao of a certain college at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and could help young Meng enter Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Meng was very interested in this, so Zhang used this opportunity to ask for money multiple times. Sometimes he directly asked for money, sometimes he used a voice-changing mobile phone to call Meng, claiming to be the Minister of Education or Dean Shao, asking for hospitality fees, activity fees, etc. Later, the matter of going to university ended up unresolved, and Meng did not pursue it further. Zhang then proposed excuses such as helping young Meng get a journalist certificate to continue deceiving.
It is understood that Meng once doubted and sought confirmation from Wang multiple times. Wang always assured confidently that "the minister is real, the college dean is real, and the relationship is very familiar", and even wrote a guarantee letter to Meng, saying that all these are true.
The 32-year-old woman Zhang lives in Wuchang with her husband Wang. In April 2006, they met Meng's couple through their cousin, and Zhang recognized Meng as her godfather. According to Wang's confession, since the operation of the film and television media company run by the couple was not very good, they decided to cheat for some money, and decided to let Zhang take the lead, with Wang supporting her behind the scenes.