Hua Zheng enjoyed the wedding of her dreams — a lavish ceremony with 140 guests and a groom who she thought would fill her life with love.
But after a huge party and $100,000 in gifts, she soon learned she had married the husband from hell, she claims in a new lawsuit.
Zheng’s spouse, Xin Wang, turned out to be a scam artist who fleeced her out of thousands, she claims. He even forced her to get an abortion a month after the nuptials and, finally, he revealed he was already married to another woman, according to her suit filed in Manhattan Civil Court.
“She really feels the husband did her wrong,” Zheng’s attorney, Victor Wong, told The Post. “She wants her day in court.”
After getting engaged last August, the couple — both immigrants from China — threw a blowout celebration at a Manhattan banquet hall in September.
The bash included a 10-course dinner, at which the newlyweds got $62,000 in cash and $40,000 in gifts, including 24-carat gold jewelry. Most of the money came from the bride’s friends and family, her suit says.
It wasn’t long before Wang, 28, took nearly half the wedding cash and “loaned” it to his brother, the suit says.
At first, Zheng, 30, didn’t get angry. She also didn’t protest when he put the rest of the money and the presents in a safe-deposit box at Chinatown bank branch.
But their relationship quickly soured when Wang put his bride to work in the kitchen of the Golden Bowl, his family’s restaurant in Reading, Pa.
Wang refused to pay her — and went ballistic when he learned she was pregnant, according to court papers.
Wang “forced and coerced” his wife to have an abortion, the suit says. When they were at the hospital filling out paperwork, he admitted he was already married.
“It was a shock from head to toe,” said Zheng’s attorney. “She almost threw up.”
After making the stunning admission of his bigamy, Wang asked for a divorce, the suit claims.
Zheng realized she’d been scammed so she hurried to the bank to retrieve the money from the safe-deposit box, but it had been cleaned out, the suit says.
“She’s embarrassed. She’s very upset,” Wong said. His client is suing for the $102,000 in wedding presents plus $50,000 in wages.
Wong says that the scam is not uncommon in the Chinese immigrant community in New York. He has two similar pending cases.
A woman who answered the phone at the husband’s Pennsylvania restaurant said Wang was not available to comment.
