A Shenzhen family which had been sponsoring a boy in an impoverished village since 1993 has discovered that the boy received no more than 10% of what they had been sending to him, Shenzhen Satellite Television reports. The family was kept so in the dark that they thought the child they sponsored, in Jiangxi Province’s Jinggangshan, was female.

At least four people were taking a cut of what the family was donating, in what could be the biggest scandal related to a Chinese charity since Guo Meimei took to the internet in 2011 to talk about how rich she had got while being associated with the Chinese Red Cross.

For two decades, the family had been donating at least 400 yuan a year to Chen Qiaoxi (a female sounding name), who was a primary school student when they started. In 2011, Chen came to Guangdong to find a job, which was when they discovered that he was a male.

Chen Chubi, the mother of the sponsoring family, told reporters of her surprise when she discovered that Chen had received no more than 40 yuan a year from the family.

Chen Xiaoqi, who now works in Zhongshan, said he had received donations from several families in Shenzhen while growing up, but no individual donation amounted to more than 40 yuan a year.

Yuan Yanting tells reporters of her disappointment.

A reporter from Information Daily in Jiangxi Province told media that his paper was leading an investigation into where the donated money was going.

Yuan Yanting, daughter of Chen Chubi, said she was disappointed but would continue to donate to charities after verifying their credibility.