College Student in China Commits Suicide After Defrauding Friends of Vast Sums

Chinese university students look at textbooks at a bookstore during the summer holidays in Shanghai, 16 August 2007. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Before he plunged to his death from a building in Qingdao on March 9, Zheng Dexing said in a final message to his former roommates that they could get their loans forgiven if they explained how he had cheated them.

For years, Zheng, a former political monitor of his college classes and a friendly and easygoing young man, stole his friends’ personal information and used it to take out loans under their names, state media reported.

He borrowed around 700,000 yuan (about $108,000) in the names of 28 classmates.