26-year-old billionaire businesswoman Wu Ying (File photo) Feb.13 - Billionaire businesswoman Wu Ying's rise to fame was a classic rags-to-riches story, a story many believed to be too good to be true.
The doubts looked well founded this weekend after the 26-year-old tycoon from East China's Zhejiang Province was held under criminal custody in the city of Dongyang on suspicion of illegal fundraising.
The local government said in a statement that police received reports from members of the public that Wu and her Bense Group had borrowed money from private business owners at high interest rates.
They said an investigation team had been set up to comb thorough her financial records.
According to China's Criminal Law, Wu, who is said to have 3.8 billion yuan ($475 million) worth of assets but whose resume is almost blank, could face 10 years behind bars if found guilty.
Wu shot to public attention last August when she registered 12 companies and bought more than 100 shops in Dongyang.
In the following months, Wu's wealth snowballed with businesses in sectors including real estate, automobile services, decoration materials, entertainment and Internet cafes.
Wu's dry-cleaning and automobile service shops provided free services to local people, and she also donated 6.3 million yuan ($813,000) to charity, placing her 95th on a ranking of top donors on the Chinese mainland, according to local media.
However, there was little in her past that would suggest such a dramatic rise.
The oldest child of a farming family in Dongyang's Geshan Town, Wu quit her accounting studies at a vocational school to run a beauty salon and foot-massage business in the town in the late 1990s.
Local media also reported that Wu opened a small car rental business with friends in Yiwu, another city in the province. But from there the trail vanishes, until last August when she registered the Bense Group.
Suspicions over where Wu's money came from have swept the Chinese media, including speculation concerning drug trafficking, munitions smuggling and money laundering. Some have even gone so far to say that Wu inherited the money from a warlord in South Asia.
In response to the rumors, Wu held a news conference on January 24 in provincial capital of Hangzhou, claiming that her money was clean. She said she acquired her capital from speculating in jewellery, foreign trade, real estate and futures.
