Her fall is as mesmerizing as her rise. Guo Meimei, one of China's biggest Internet stars, was formally arrested on August 20 after authorities filed the motion last week for running an illegal casino. Guo also confessed to working as a high-class prostitute, charging clients as much as 100,000 yuan ($17,400 USD) for her company.

Like Us on Facebook

Quickly establishing a love-her-or-hate-her digital presence with ostentatious displays of wealth, the "webutante" began her climb up China's on-line social ladder in 2011 via regular postings on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. Although she claimed to work as a "commercial manager" for the Red Cross Society of China, many of her critics fumed how a charity worker could afford glamorous vacations and luxury apparel. Seeing its donations skydive over concerns how money was being utilized, the Red Cross adamantly denied any connection Guo, saying she had never been in their employ. And she never did.

It was those denials and Guo's own increasingly hubristic and lackadaisical posts that law enforcement officials came to suspect her illicit money-making schemes.

Officials charge that Guo, 23, and an accomplice surnamed Kang ran an illegal gambling den in a rented Beijing apartment starting in 2012, where the stakes ran over one million yuan (about $160,000 USD). Guo raked in three to five percent in the form of kickbacks. 

Her sensational jailhouse confession, said to have come on the orders of China's communist leaders, was broadcast on Chinese TV on August 4. A rapt Chinese public watched as a sobbing Guo admitted to having the "vain mindset of a little girl" and gave salacious details of her life as a high-priced call girl.

"I have no shortage of men who wanted me as their mistress, there are many people who want to sleep with me for a night, for any price," she said.

"I was once paid 50,000 yuan by one man into my bank account. He gave me another 300,000 Hong Kong dollars to me. We had sexual relations the first time I arrived. I flew back to Beijing the next day and he bought me the plane ticket. He gave me another 110,000 yuan into my account after I returned home."

Prostitution is illegal in China, although what charges will stem from the confession have not been released. Chinese law stipulates people who run a casino illegally face a jail sentence for up three years.

TagsGuo Meimei, Red Cross