Prosecutors: Woman from rich family orchestrated murder
HILLSBOROUGH, Calif. — Keith Green was a popular but troubled Northern California high school football star who had recently washed out of college when he met Tiffany Li.
Li, the pretty, jet-setting daughter of a rich and powerful Chinese family, was born in Beijing and grew up in Silicon Valley.
She changed Green’s life.
Then, according to prosecutors, she orchestrated his murder last year when she fell in love with another man after more than six years with Green.
That man, his “bodyguard” and Li have all been charged with first-degree murder. The men are jailed pending a September trial.
Li, however, called on her wealthy family and friends to post $4 million in cash and put up more than $60 million in Northern California real estate to secure bail and set her free before trial. The district attorney called the amount unprecedented.
Her release on bail shocked Green’s family and friends and underscored just how wealthy and influential her family is.
Li’s attorney Geoff Carr says she had nothing to do with the murder and that’s why her family and friends took the financial risk they did to post her bail. Li and the two men have pleaded not guilty.
Court records show her mother and stepfather amassed a fortune through real estate investments and construction projects in China, including two Beijing skyscrapers. The documents show that the family has properties in the Cayman Islands and St. Kitts, Caribbean island nations known for their lush beaches and strict financial privacy laws.
Li and Green met in 2009, when he was 21 and she was 23 and quickly decided to live together. They first moved into an apartment owned by her mother, then soon moved into a new $7 million mansion in an exclusive San Francisco suburb.
Li gave birth to a daughter in 2012 and to a second daughter two years later.