Taiwan actor couple's property sealed off over pyramid scheme
Taiwan actor couple Lin Ruiyang and Zhang Ting.
Ninety-six houses, with a combined value of 1.7 billion yuan (US$360 million) and owned by Taiwan actor couple Lin Ruiyang and Zhang Ting, have been sealed off after the pair was caught in an alleged pyramid scheme, according to a recent news report.
The real estate was purchased by Shanghai Dowell Trading Co during its suspected pyramid-style marketing and sales of a self-owned skincare cosmetics brand TST, or Tin's Secret, the paper.cn reported, citing materials it had obtained from authoritative sources.
Located in Shanghai's Pudong New Area, the property was purchased in 2020 by Dowell Trading Co and held by its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, the report said.
The Taiwan couple's Dowell Trading firm was fined around 20.9 million yuan by the Baokang County Market Supervision Administration of central China's Hubei Province for initiating, organizing, planning and managing multilevel marketing, according to the paper.cn.
The suspected pyramid scheme case was exposed online at the end of December last year and garnered wide attention.
Authorities in China have been investigating the firm, including the Yuhua District Market Supervision Administration of Shijiazhuang, capital of northern Hebei Province, following complaints from consumers.
