It has been 20 days since Guo Meimei was arrested by the Beijing police for World Cup gambling on July 14th. Guo became an Internet celebrity for flaunting her wealth online and claiming to be a general manager of the Red Cross Society of China. What is the real story behind this 23-year-old girl? The truth has finally been revealed.

Making money out of illegal gambling activities in a rental apartment

After being arrested, Guo Meimei confessed her World Cup gambling to the police, as well as other gambling activities and illegal profit-making activities.

Guo had made more than 60 visits to Macao, Hongkong, and other cities in order to gamble. At the end of 2012, Guo Meimei met a foreign gambler called Kang, and shortly afterwards they started to live together in Beijing. In February 2013, Guo and Kang planned to open an illicit casino in Beijing. Guo had her assistant Lv rented an apartment in Chaoyang District costing 19,000 yuan per month. Guo and Kang bought gambling tables, chips, and POS machines.

According to the police, all the games in Guo's casino were above millions, and she made hundreds of thousands in illegal profits out of this casino.

260 million debt was a lie, "show business" was actually prostitution

Guo Meimei once flaunted her wealth online and claimed to have "lost big time" on her microblog.

A microblog claimed Guo lost 260 million gambling in Macao, and her files had been deleted from debt networks after she went back to Macao and paid off her debts. The microblog also stated that Guo found someone new who was willing to pay almost half of her debts.

However, a police investigation verified this was false.

Guo Meimei also claimed that her major income was from "night shows" arranged by a performing arts company she had signed. On investigation, the police found that Guo's "night show" activities actually involved prostitution. Through online connections and introductions from contacts, Guo was charging more than one hundred thousand a time for sexual favours.

Guo wants to testify the innocence of Red Cross Society of China

Guo Meimei was born in 1991 in Yiyang, Hunan. She grew up with her mother. Her father had a criminal record for fraud and her mother worked in places like sauna centers. Guo's aunt was arrested for assisting others to engage in prostitution, and her uncle was sentenced for drug dealing.

From September 2008 Guo Meimei paid herself through Beijing Film Academy for a year. After she graduated, she lived on a few walk-on parts and her mother's financial support. In August 2010, she met a businessman called Wang from Shenzhen, who provided for her and even bought her a car worth 2.4 million yuan. On one occasion Wang took a 10% share of a company that was developing projects with the Red Cross Society of China worth 5 million yuan. For commercial advantage, Wang painted a "red cross" on some of the cars he bought.

In order to make a bigger name for herself, Guo changed her microblog profile from "actor/singer" to "general manager of the Red Cross Society of China" and kept posting pictures of her extravagant lifestyle which caused severe damage to the society.

"I was too ignorant to realize that the Red Cross Society was such a big charity," claims Guo. "It was sheer vanity that caused me to do that."

Guo Meimei now confesses that she had nothing to do with Red Cross Society of China at all. She has admitted that she made a huge mistake and harmed the Red Cross Society because of her immaturity and vanity. "No matter how deeply I apologize, I can't make up for what I have done," she has said.

The The article is edited and translated from《郭美美闹剧是如何上演的》, source: People's Daily, author: Zhang Yang