Revealed: Net closes in on Chinese 'fraud kingpin'

The net could be closing in on the Chinese woman, Yan Yu who has over many years been embroiled as both litigant and accused, in a litany of cases involving various criminal matters including alleged fraudulent seizure of companies, impersonation, forgery and misrepresentation of facts for fraudulent purposes and perjury.

An investigation by Truth Diggers into Yan Yu's alleged shenanigans produced volumes of documents including official and confidential correspondences between top government offices and departments exposing an intricate network of what appears to be a Chinese fraud cartel. Truth Diggers is Alpha Media Holdings investigative journalism unit.

In the latest matter, the Supreme Court has requested and received affidavits presented as evidence of Yan Yu’s alleged fraudulent activities, including but not limited to deceitful acquisition of false identity documents for purposes of committing crimes and registering the estate of a living person.

The Supreme Court sat on February 27 to hear an appeal by Zimbabwean businessmen who were convicted at the High Court and sent to prison in a case that Vincent Tom-Baris, Washington Frera and Norman Ngoshi argue was anchored on fraudulent documents, impersonation and perjury.

The Supreme Court reserved judgement at the end of the hearing after it received as evidence, an affidavit from the registrar general Henry Tawona Machiri.

The affidavit appears to confirm Yan Yu may have misrepresented herself as the widow of a man who is actually alive and is at the centre of a property dispute that has sent the Zimbabwean businessman to jail.

Machiri wrote an affidavit, which was deposited with the Supreme Court stating that upon arrival in Zimbabwe in 1999, Yu’s husband, Zhaoxi Wu “misrepresented and lied to the registration officer that he was Zhaosheng Wu when in actual fact he was Zhaoxi Wu”.

He was resultantly issued with a metal national identity card, which he used until he died in 2017.

When her husband died, Yu proceeded to use that fraudulently obtained national identity document to obtain a burial order and death certificate in the name of Zhaosheng Wu, who is alive and well in China.

She apparently also used these documents to successfully dupe Master of the High Court into issuing her with letters of administration of the estate of the “deceased” person, Zhaosheng Wu.

The letters of administration of the estate were issued in her name as "the widow" of Zhaosheng Wu who was not her husband and was alive.

She did all this in the full knowledge of the fact that her deceased husband was Zhaoxi Wu and not Zhaosheng Wu. The two were brothers and are said to have been on the wanted list of many countries around the globe.

Zhaosheng Wu has a huge estate spanning from mines, swathes of prime land in Harare and elsewhere across the country to huge interests in tourism and hospitality among other properties.

This is the estate that Yu sought to register and inherit as widow of the deceased until it was discovered and Master of the High Court immediately revoked letters of appointment issued in her favour as the executrix dative.

Yu’s deceased husband, Zhaoxi Wu did not have any estate to talk about in Zimbabwe.

Documents before the courts say Yu had also fraudulently registered her own two children with her husband Zhaoxi Wu as heirs to Zhaosheng Wu’s estate.

These shenanigans were however unearthed resulting in the registrar general and the Master of the High Court cancelling the false documents including the burial order, the death certificate and the estate registration certificate that had been issued to Yu.

In correspondences from Master of the High Court on April 22, 2022 copy of which is in this paper’s possession, the deputy Master of the High Court, a Mrs KF Chigomararwa states that following evidence that the “so called Zhaosheng Wu was an imposter”, who had fraudulently acquired the identity documents presented to the Master of the High Court, a decision had been made to cancel the registration of the deceased estate from their register.

“Accordingly, it follows that all proceedings to do with the administration of the estate have been set aside and letters of appointment issued in favour of Yan Yu as the executrix dative have been revoked,” the letter reads. “The whole process has been rendered invalid and the record is recorded as closed.”

The registrar general was advised of the fraud by the Chinese embassy and also by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in correspondences that were copied to the Department of Immigration Control.

Machiri, who was then the acting registrar general wrote to a Mr Shoko of the President’s Office explaining the fraudulent acquisition of false identity documents by Yan Yu’s husband, Zhaoxi Wu in the name of his brother Zhaosheng Wu in 1999 and how he used that ID up to the time of his death on June 04 2017.

“He used his brother’s passport (No CHN 144700389), which led to the production of a metal identity card 631179331 P00… He misrepresented facts and lied to the registration officer that he was Zhaosheng Wu while in actual fact he was Zhaoxi Wu,” Machiri wrote.

He said upon Zhaoxi Wu’s death, while production of the burial order and death certificates were in progress, the identity of the deceased was queried and on June 08 2017 the secretary for Foreign Affairs wrote to the Chief Director of immigration requesting assistance to have DNA samples extracted from the deceased for identity verification. This was done and it proved the identity fraud.

“On January 31 2018 the Chinese Embassy wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming that the so called Zhaosheng Wu who had died in Harare was actually Zhaoxi Wu and the two were “actually brothers”. Zhaosheng Wu was in China at the time of his brother’s death.”

The death certificate was then produced in the correct name of Zhaoxi Wu, but the burial order that had earlier been produced in the name of Zhaosheng Wu, remained in Yu’s possession as she was the wife of the deceased person and therefore the next of kin.

“The burial order, however, should have been returned to the issuing office soon after burial. This was not done,” Machiri wrote.

This identity fraud and other shenanigans, including the fraudulent acquisition by Yan Yu of the registration of an estate of a living person and getting herself appointed as the executrix dative of Zhaosheng Wu’s estate is what anchors the Zimbabwean businessmen’s appeal at the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court then asked for proof of these shenanigans and the registrar general wrote an affidavit which was received by the court.

In his affidavit, copy of which is in Truth Diggers’ possession, Machiri said his office immediately cancelled the fraudulent death certificate but the burial order which had already been issued in the name of Zhaosheng Wu and handed to Yu, was not surrendered to the issuing office as should have happened.

She kept it and later used it to fraudulently obtain the estate administration certificate to Zhaosheng Wu’s estate.

The Supreme Court has reserved judgement.

Yu allegedly continued to misrepresent herself as Zhaosheng Wu’s widow in several property dispute cases including the one whose judgement is being appealed at the Supreme Court.

Throughout the case’s subsistence at the magistrates court and later at the High Court, Yu presented herself, in documents and under oath as Zhaosheng Wu’s widow.

A Truth Diggers investigation tracked down Yu’s numerous activities from the time she landed in Zimbabwe in the 1990s when she and her husband used various identities as they engaged in property wrangles.

During court proceedings in another case where Yan Yu and her husband were accused of fraudulently taking over a furniture company with shares worth half a million US dollars, the couple was accused of using false identities.

Court records say Yan Yu called herself Willa Yu while her husband referred to himself as Frank Yu.