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    Trending: Jack Ma Denies Claims That He Owns a Billion-Dollar Property

    China's wealthiest man, Jack Ma, took to social media to deny claims that he owns a billion-dollar mansion and other luxury goods.
    Jack Ma took to Chinese social media to deny claims that he owns a billon-dollar property. Photo: Jack Ma's Weibo
    Yiling PanAuthor
      Published   in Finance

    Just days after China's richest man, Alibaba Group's Jack Ma, made headlines for saying he didn't have time to spend money (to the chagrin of luxury brands everywhere), he spoke up on his official Weibo account to deny rumors that he owns a billion-dollar mansion in the city of Suzhou.

    "People are saying every day that I own this mansion, I own that limousine," he wrote. "So much news like this has almost convinced me that I do own them."

    According to the information Ma posted, an asset management company (he deliberately removed the name of the company) said that he owns the world's most expensive mansion, worth more than one billion yuan. That allegedly fake post also included several photos that were claimed to be "Jack Ma's mansion." And, judging from the pictures, it looks fancy.

    The report of that home was first made in 2015, when the South China Morning Post claimed to reveal that Ma bought a luxurious 9,890-square-foot home in Hong Kong for 193 million, which that publication noted was, at the time, the world's second-most expensive home. The story also reported that Ma had bought a home in New York, in the Adirondacks in June that year.

    In July 2017, local Chinese publication Sohu spotted a Mercedes Maybach sedan at Alibaba Group headquarters in Hangzhou claiming Ma was its owner. The report also said he bought the luxury vehicle back in 2011 for 13 million yuan (2 million) before Mercedes ceased production of the model.

    Photo: VCG
    Photo: VCG

    Ma seemed to lose patience this time around. Here is his complete retort, published on September 28:

    "People are saying every day that I own this mansion, I own that limousine. All of this kind of news, so regularly reported, has almost convinced me that I do own them.... Come on. To the asset management company who wrote the fake news, I ask, Could you give me a mansion or a limousine? Or just please donate your gifts to a local nursing home or the government. Also those 'books' sold under my name in the airport, and those 'words' said by me on the internet... All of these things have been used to create a fictional character of me, one who owns a billion-dollar property and publishes a lot of books.... In recent years, people have also said that I have a feng shui expert, a strategist and numerous personal assistants. So I decided to pay them on the 32nd day of each month and give them a day off on the eighth day of each week."

    Weibo comment: You also said you did not have time to spend money. Perhaps I can help you do that job?

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