The trial of Li Lijuan, the former owner of an orphanage named Love Village who has been charged with gang-related crimes, began in Wu'an, North China's Hebei Province on Wednesday. 

Li and 15 other defendants are accused of a series of gang-related crimes such as disturbing social order, forging corporate seals, extortion, fraud and intentional injury.

The Love Village was shut down after Li, 49, whose ID name is Li Yanxia, was detained on May 5, 2018 by the Wu'an Public Security Bureau. 

Li is accused of portraying herself as a loving mother figure to more than 100 orphans. 

Li had a total of more than 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) in 45 bank accounts, and a total cash amount of $25,500, according to the police. 

She tried to obtain 20 million yuan in compensation from a government's photovoltaic power station project in 2014, according to the indictment of the Wu'an City People's Procuratorate. The project was forced to pay Li 700,000 yuan. Li later used the money to purchase a Mercedes-Benz car.

The local police also disclosed that Li obtained nearly 300,000 yuan through extortion from local hotels and hospitals in one month. 

Through threats and frauds, the 15 defendants in Li's case are accused of committing crimes such as forging the seals of companies, enterprises and institutions and disturbing local social order, the indictment said. 

According to the charge, Li used her identity as the head of Love Village and provided 23 application profiles that were inconsistent with the facts to local welfare authorities and did not disclose that three people who received subsistence allowances had died. Li defrauded the national urban low-income subsidy fund out of 568,493 yuan, according to the information disclosed by the authority.