Ex-media boss jailed in negative story scam
Print Edition
THE former boss of a leading media company has been sentenced to four years in prison and fined 60,000 yuan (US$9,300) for his part in a 26.25 million yuan extortion racket.
According to the verdict, Shen Hao was fined 60,000 yuan and all his illegal gains will be confiscated. The media group was fined 9.485 million yuan.
Shen, the former president of Guangdong-based 21st Century Media Ltd, was tried yesterday at the Pudong New Area People’s Court in Shanghai and found guilty of blackmailing companies into paying to have negative news stories about them repressed by titles and websites owned by the firm.
Between August 2009 and September 2014, Shen and other group employees extorted 7.3 million yuan in “cooperation fees” from nine companies in return for quashing negative reports, the court said.
Between December 2009 and August 2014, the same people conspired with public relations companies to use negative reports to force 70 companies to sign advertisement contracts worth almost 19 million yuan, it said.
“I have to bear responsibility. I can’t shirk it,” Shen said from the dock, before bowing in apology to some of the victims present in the courtroom.
The scandal came to the public’s attention in September last year when Liu Dong, president of the group’s flagship website 21cbh.com, was questioned by police.
The subsequent investigation led to 30 employees of 15 companies, including two of Shen’s former vice presidents, Chen Dongyang and Le Bing, standing trial.
All but one of them was sentenced to between 18 months and 10 years in prison.
Also among those jailed were Liu Hui, former editor-in-chief of 21st Century Business Herald, and Xia Ri, former publisher of Money Week.
Aside from the individual punishments, each of the 15 companies found to have been complicit in the scheme was fined between 30,000 and 54 million yuan.
The court said that 21st Century Media capitalized on the fear of negative publicity for companies poised for IPOs or who were restructuring their assets.
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