Reporter | Yang Peiwen
It has been about four months since the brand "TST Court Secret" of stars Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang was revealed to be suspected of pyramid selling.
Recently, the Red Star Capital Bureau learned from people familiar with the matter that the secret operating entity of the TST court has been identified by the market supervision department as constituting an illegal act of organizing and planning pyramid selling, and was confiscated of 19.2799 million yuan of illegal income and fined 1.7 million yuan.
Red Star Capital Bureau learned that Hubei Baokang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau determined that from January 1, 2018 to July 2021, the relevant companies’ revenue from the main business involving pyramid selling totaled 9.171 billion yuan, with a profit of 19.2799 million yuan Yuan.
Was fined more than 20 million for pyramid selling
According to public information, the main operating company of the brand "TST Court Secret" is Shanghai Darwin Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dalway Company"), which was founded by stars Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang in 2013, focusing on cosmetics and skin care products. category.
In December 2021, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang City stated in a "Reply to the Verification Letter" that Darwin was suspected of using the Internet to engage in pyramid selling activities, and it had opened a case for investigation.
The incident aroused widespread public attention.
On April 7, a person who was a TST court secret dealer revealed to the Red Star Capital Bureau that the Baokang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau has imposed administrative penalties on the TST court secret operator in September 2021.
According to the above-mentioned sources, Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau believes that the bonus system formulated by Darwin Company divides members into blue card members and red card members.
Among them, blue card members are ordinary consumers, and the bonus system for blue card members is in line with business practices, and there is no illegal situation.
However, the bonus system implemented by the red card members of Darwin Company requires the development personnel to develop other personnel to join in to form a relationship between the upper and lower lines, and the behavior of calculating and paying the online remuneration based on the sales performance of the lower line is related to the "Prohibition of Pyramid Selling Regulations". The circumstances referred to in the terms are pyramid schemes.
As the initiator, organization, planning and manager of MLM activities, Darwin Company constitutes the organization and planning of illegal MLM activities.
In the end, Darwin was asked to immediately stop the pyramid scheme, confiscated 19.2799 million yuan of illegal gains and fined 1.7 million yuan.
In other words, it was fined and confiscated 20.9799 million yuan in total.
On April 7, the Red Star Capital Bureau called the landline number disclosed by the Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau on the official website of the Baokang County People's Government. The staff who answered the phone first said that they did not know the matter, and asked the reporter to go to the local area of Baokang County to find relevant information. personnel to verify in person.
When the Red Star Capital Bureau asked which relevant person to check with after going to the local area, the other party called it "inconvenient to inform", and then hung up the phone directly.
On the same day, another staff member of the Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau told the Red Star Capital Bureau that he did not know the specific circumstances of the case, such as the confiscation of illegal gains and the amount of fines, "but it seems that there is such a thing."
Darwin's revenue is nearly 10 billion, and the profit is less than 20 million
According to the information provided by the above-mentioned persons, the Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that Darwin has developed a total of more than 7 million members from January 1, 2018 to July 2021.
During this period of about three and a half years, Darwin's main business related to pyramid selling had an income of about 9.171 billion yuan, but the final profit was 19.2799 million yuan.
Among them, the main business cost was 5.646 billion yuan, and the actual related expenses were 3.458 billion yuan.
The Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that the above-mentioned punishment was earlier than the time when the Shijiazhuang City Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau opened the case for investigation (December 2021).
However, as of press time, the Red Star Capital Bureau was unable to find information on administrative penalties related to Darwin in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.