Boss of Chinese health care firm linked to four-year-old’s death given nine years in prison, fined US$7.2 million
- Shu Yuhui, chief executive of Quanjian Group and 11 colleagues found guilty of running a pyramid scheme
- Company came under scrutiny when family of child suffering from cancer gave up traditional treatments in favour of its spurious remedies
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The boss of a Chinese health care product manufacturer that made headlines in 2018 after the family of a four-year-old girl gave up her cancer treatment in favour of a herbal remedy made by the company, has been sentenced to nine years in prison and fined 50 million yuan (US$7.2 million).
The co-defendants were also fined and given prison terms of between three and six years, while the company was fined 100 million yuan.
“The court found that Quanjian, as well as the 12-person group led by Shu, organised and led a pyramid scheme,” Tianjin Wuqing District People’s Court said in a statement announcing the sentencing on Wednesday.
“Since 2007, Quanjian has used high reward as bait, tempting others to buy products whose sales price heavily differed from its cost and become Quanjian members, then rewarded these members based on the number of people they recruited, tempting them to keep introducing others, forming a pyramid structure, and profiting from the scheme.”
People on social media celebrated the news.
“We should be careful in the future and not blindly buy health care products, they are not medicine. If you are sick, go to the hospital,” a person said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service.
“The companies that treat people’s lives like a joke should not end well,” another said.
The Tianjin-based conglomerate, which also owns a soccer club, hotels, medical institutes and business education schools, first came under scrutiny in December 2018 when Chinese health website Doctor Clove blamed it for the death of four-year-old Zhou Yang.
The child had been diagnosed in 2012 with sacrococcygeal teratoma – a tumour at the base of her coccyx. She had undergone surgery and was receiving chemotherapy to treat it, but her recovery had been slow.
Before she died, Quanjian used her image to promote its products. Zhou Erli tried but failed to sue for false marketing.
