A Chinese citizen living in Queens tried to hire a hitman to kill her beau’s wife and adult daughter through a scam site — then offered sexual favors to one of the would-be victim’s neighbors to finish the job, prosecutors said.
Yue Zhou, 42, allegedly paid $5,000 to a fake website that the she thought would send a hired gun to take out her still-married lover’s family in 2019, US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
Zhou was set to be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court Monday and prosecutors have asked the court to remand her “based on her concerted and painstaking efforts to kill numerous people,” which they said makes her a “clear danger to the community if released,” according to court filings.
Zhou — who does not have permanent legal status in the United States — faces more than 12 years in prison if convicted. She could also be deported, the statement said.
Her twisted saga began sometime between March 25 and April 4, 2019, when Zhou allegedly used the alias “Bigtree” to order the killing on the site, then contracted with a Ukrainian exchange service for a Bitcoin payment, prosecutors alleged.
She offered a slew of details about the victim, including her home address, her work schedule and the best times to find her, the statement said.
“At the time, the defendant was having an affair with (the victim’s) spouse, and had become emotionally invested in the relationship, expressing a desire to get married and have children with (him),” the statement said.
Zhou also wanted the daughter clipped, and tried to get the website to add her to the list, prosecutors said.
She’d threatened the woman herself as well, writing in December 2019 text messages that she would cut her body “into hundred pieces.”
“I know where you live,” she wrote, according to the feds. “I watch you all time.”
But through it all, Zhou — who the feds say has worked for years in illicit spas throughout the United States — had no idea the website was a scam.
When she wised up, she allegedly began sending “disturbing threats” of physical and sexual violence against the site’s administrator and his family, according to court documents.
But she wasn’t done with her lover’s family, either.
In February 2021, Zhou texted her lover’s daughter’s neighbor and asked that they kill her instead, prosecutors claimed.
“Zhou offered the neighbor $10,000 and sexual favors in exchange for killing (the daughter) and disposing of the body in a lake,” the statement said.
It’s not clear how the feds caught onto Zhou’s alleged scheme.
But they arrested her at a Virginia spa on June 5, then extradited her to New York on July 3.
“Yue Zhou is accused of offering cryptocurrency, cash, and even sexual favors during her discussions related to having her then-partner’s spouse and adult daughter killed,” Ivan Arvelo, head of the Homeland Security Investigations’ New York office, said in the statement.
“Little did she know, the website she allegedly thought she was using to solicit a hitman was a farce, and the crimes of which she is accused soon caught up to her.”
The feds added that Zhou has worked at several spas throughout the country that have a reputation for engaging in prostitution, including businesses in Wyoming, Maryland and Virginia.