Internet celeb and associate accused of selling toxic food
Guo Meiling and Wang Zouya are on trial today.
The Shanghai Railway Transport Court held a public hearing today for two women, including Guo Meiling, better known as Guo Meimei, an Internet celebrity, for allegedly selling harmful, toxic food.
Guo and another defendant, Wang Zouya, are alleged to have produced and sold diet food containing sibutramine, a drug that acts on the central nervous system to suppress appetite, according to police.
Sibutramine is banned in China, as it can cause side effects such as high blood pressure, increased heart rate and even death in severe cases.
It was made into diet candy and pills that were sold online in January and February by Guo and Wang, who clearly knew the products included illegal ingredients, police said.
Each box of the diet candy was sold for 699 yuan (US$107.86).
Guo had sold more than 100 boxes and collected more than 70,000 yuan by the time she was caught by police.
She also helped Wang sell four boxes of the candy for 2,796 yuan.
The public prosecution organ said Guo and Wang had constituted the crime of selling toxic and harmful food.
They fully exercised their relevant litigation rights during the hearing, the court said.
The court will announce their sentences at a later date.
Guo, 30, a young influencer, has more than a million followers on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-liked social media platform, who first drew public attention in 2011 when she claimed to work for an organization under China's Red Cross and boasted of a luxurious lifestyle to draw attention.
The Red Cross denied any relationship with her, and she later stated it was all a misunderstanding.
She was sentenced to prison in 2015 for running a casino and released in 2019.
Guo Meiling, better known Guo Meimei
