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
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.”
