When Chinese foreign exchange student Yong Xu heard that his sister was dying of leukemia last spring, he begged friends and co-workers at Cornerstone Grill and Loft to help him be at her bedside during her final days.
So Jay LiBou, a senior finance and philosophy major, decided he would do everything he could to send Xu home.
LiBou organized a fundraiser at Cornerstone in March with the help of sorority Delta Phi Epsilon. The event was a success, and with the help of additional private donors, Xu was handed about $2,800 for a one-way ticket to his home in Nanjing.
Days after Xu left, a suspicious LiBou found it was all a lie.
Xu’s sister was never diagnosed with leukemia. Instead, LiBou suspects Xu wanted to return to China to be with his serious girlfriend.
“It’s a great sense of betrayal,” said a Cornerstone manager who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bar’s employees are restricted from talking to the media. “Everybody here was genuinely concerned for him. I put a lot of money out of my own pocket for that individual.”
LiBou, who welcomed the cash-strapped Xu into his apartment and provided him a mattress on the floor, began to question Xu’s story a few days before his flight to China. In a note, Xu asked LiBou for an additional $1,000 for a previously unplanned return flight. Xu wrote he would come back after spring break, finish his studies and try to raise more money to help his sister, LiBou said.
At this point, LiBou became suspicious of Xu’s claims and requested to see an official documentation of his sister’s diagnosis. Xu provided a certified diagnosis of leukemia for a female girl with the last name Xu.
Worries eased, Xu was taken to the airport and told LiBou and their friend, graduate student Ming Yan, that they would receive a phone call when he arrived to China.
“It was two to three days later and we still hadn’t heard from him,” LiBou said. “I thought it was a little weird when he didn’t say ‘thank you’ once.”
Yan unsuccessfully attempted to call Xu’s family. Then on March 22, Yan received an e-mail from Xu telling him to leave him and his family alone. Frustrated and skeptical, Yan got a hold of the phone number for Xu’s sister’s school.
“I was really surprised. I was thinking, why was his sister still in class if she’s so sick? Something was wrong,” Yan said. He spoke to the principal, and asked to speak with Yuanyuan – Xu’s sister – and described her condition. “The teacher said there’s no such kind of girl in this school. The teacher said she wasn’t sick, that she looked fine.”
Yan and LiBou traced the e-mail Xu forwarded with the alleged official diagnosis of his sister’s leukemia. They discovered the e-mails were instead generated from LiBou’s computer. Xu had been writing false e-mails to himself to prove his twisted story.
“I’ve lost a lot of faith in helping people.” LiBou said.
Xu sent an apology for the fraud through a university listserv provided for the Chinese community in College Park to the university’s Chinese community.
“He claimed he had mental problem; he also claimed there’s someone behind him, and he’s just been used by someone,” Yan said. “But he didn’t explain what was the plot, and who was behind him.”
Xu’s only response to a Diamondback interview request about his sister’s health was an e-mail that stated, “Please.. we are fine..”
Before the Cornerstone fundraiser, members of the local Chinese community were suspicious of Xu’s honesty.
Tim Mountfort, a missionary at China Outreach Ministries, a Christian fellowship based in College Park, was one of the first to welcome Xu to the campus. Mountfort’s church, Grace Fellowship, picked Xu up at the airport, provided him with shelter and helped him find a place to live. Contrary to what a previous Diamondback article reported, the church did not kick Xu out of their shelter, Mountfort said.
“We just saw a pattern because we were with him from the very beginning. At first he looked completely normal and very appreciative, like a real great guy,” Mountfort said. “But within weeks, he was starting to progress. We were asking ourselves, ‘Why is he lying to us?'”
None of the $2,800 given to Xu has been refunded.
“It’s really sad because he really scammed a lot of people,” Mountfort said.
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