The Fall of a Trusted Employee
Wang Meili (name changed), 35, was a financial manager at a state-owned company where she worked for nearly a decade. Over the years, she rose from a regular finance assistant to managing daily cash flow and bookkeeping, earning trust from both leaders and colleagues. No one expected this reliable and serious employee to fall into a five-year path of crime.
Starting in 2012, she began spending extravagantly, but her family income couldn’t keep up. She turned to online loans to maintain her lifestyle. By 2019, Wang Meili was buried in debt exceeding 200,000 yuan (about 731 million VND) and couldn’t repay it. That’s when she turned her attention to the company’s funds.
Wang Meili’s corruption didn’t happen overnight. She started by exploiting small loopholes in the company’s financial system to take minor cash amounts for personal use. After her first success, she felt anxious and feared being caught by colleagues or management. But over time, as no one noticed, she grew bolder. She then sought more discreet methods and found weaknesses in the company’s expense auditing process, leading her to forge expense documents. As the embezzled amount grew, her methods became more sophisticated and varied.
From December 2019 to November 2024, Wang Meili abused her financial manager role to create fake expenses, sign altered payment vouchers, and forge documents, embezzling over 7 million yuan (about 25.6 billion VND) from company funds. She spent it all with no way to repay. Once exposed, her bank accounts were frozen, leaving her with only 800 yuan (around 3 million VND).
Virtual Life and Costly Consequences
Shockingly, Wang Meili didn’t use the stolen money to improve her life or invest. Instead, most of it flowed into online streaming platforms. She got hooked on young, handsome, talented male streamers and the lively atmosphere of their live rooms.
“At first, I just logged on to listen to them sing, occasionally spending a few hundred yuan to buy small gifts to encourage their performances,” Wang Meili recalled. “Then, competing for top donor status, I became addicted and couldn’t stop. But with limited finances, I couldn’t keep up, so I started using company funds…”
Her gift amounts kept rising from hundreds to thousands, then tens of thousands of yuan. After each donation, hearing her name called out in the live room and being affectionately called “dear sister” by the streamers, along with heartfelt thanks and jealous looks from other fans, gave her a deep satisfaction she’d never felt before. Enchanted by their sweet words, she forgot the money was stolen.
Over five years, more than 6 million yuan of the 7 million yuan embezzled was spent gifting streamers. The truth eventually came out. Prosecutors charged Wang Meili with corruption, and she was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Source: 163
