UK newspaper says ‘intimate’ video led to GSK investigation
Print Edition
AN “intimate” video of former GlaxoSmithKline China General Manager Mark Reilly with his Chinese girlfriend is said to have provided clues for a bribery investigation into the UK drug company in China, according to a British newspaper.
The Sunday Times said the video was sent to senior executives in March last year. It said the recording was shot without Reilly’s knowledge or consent at his Shanghai flat. It was not clear who shot the video or why.
A GSK spokesman confirmed the tape existed but did not comment on how it related to bribery allegations, Reuters reported.
The newspaper said the drug company had previously authorized Reilly to spend an initial 20,000 pounds (US$34,000) to hire a private investigator to find out about attempts to expose the drug giant’s wrongdoings.
Two months later, the Chinese authorities launched a major investigation into corruption at GSK. In July 2013, Chinese police accused the company of transferring as much as 3 billion yuan (US$482 million) through travel agencies to bribe doctors and officials.
The company, which described the bribery allegations as “shameful” when they came to light last year, said it was continuing to cooperate fully with Chinese authorities in its ongoing investigation.
“The issues relating to our China business are very difficult and complicated,” it added in a statement released on Sunday.
In May this year, Chinese police charged Reilly and two Chinese associates of bribing doctors and hospitals to use GSK drugs. Reilly is accused of operating a “massive bribery network” involving hundreds of millions of yuan.
The three are alleged to be involved in bribing officials and individuals at every level of the health care system to drive sales.
Reilly has been barred from leaving China but his whereabouts are unknown.
The case has hit GSK’s sales in China, as buyers have shied away from doing business with the company and GSK itself has revamped its sales and marketing model.
In December last year, the company said it was severing the link between sales targets and staff income as part of an overhaul of its marketing activities in China.
Bribery allegations involving GSK have since come to light in other countries and the company is now investigating claims bribes were also paid to doctors in Poland, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
Last month, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office launched a formal criminal investigation into GSK.
Reuters said the investigation and its scrutiny of other drugs companies had alarmed foreign executives and some had asked lawyers if they should temporarily leave the country.
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