A Chinese student, Allen Xu, 29, has been ordered by the Supreme Court of Victoria and a Court of Appeal to return nearly $5 million and two Sydney properties to his mother, Jiyun Ma. The courts rejected Xu's claim that the substantial sum of money and assets he received were an outright gift.
The situation began around 2020 when Ms. Ma provided her son with approximately $5 million to help him qualify for a business innovation and investment visa, after funding his Master of Economics at the University of Sydney. Ms. Ma, who has never visited Australia, subsequently transferred close to $2 million in April 2021 for Xu to purchase a property in Haymarket, which was registered in his name.
Between July 2021 and May 2022, Ms. Ma sent Xu an additional $11,133,322 from banks in China and Canada, with instructions for it to be invested in property on her behalf. Instead of adhering to these instructions, Xu used a significant portion of the funds for luxury purchases, including cosmetic surgery, and acquired an apartment in Wentworth Point. The remaining funds were deposited into a bank account registered in his own name.
By June 2022, Ms. Ma became aware of the situation and demanded the return of her money. In the ensuing legal proceedings, Xu largely lost the case due to admissions he made in WeChat messages to his mother, expressing remorse and describing himself as "greedy, dishonest, immoral, and a very bad person."
In an initial draft of an apology message to his mother, shown to the court, Xu wrote about becoming arrogant upon receiving the wealth and acknowledged that the money was his mother's. He stated, "I know that these things don’t belong to me, the money doesn’t belong to me, and I don’t have the ability to earn that much money. But under the circumstances at the time, I really couldn’t control the devil living in my heart."
Xu's defense in court attempted to argue that he signed a power of attorney under emotional duress and that his eyelid surgery had impaired his vision to the extent that he could not have written the apology. However, the courts found these claims implausible, noting the timing of the surgery relative to the written admissions and the consistency of his actions with the understanding that the properties were not his.
Justice David Croft initially ruled in favor of Ms. Ma in June 2025, ordering Xu to repay $3,120,445.72, along with $989,063.04 in interest. The judgment also declared that Xu held the Haymarket and Wentworth Point properties in trust for Ms. Ma and must take all necessary steps to transfer them. The Court of Appeal upheld this decision, dismissing Xu's appeal.