A few days ago, the shanghai Dalway Trading Co., Ltd., founded by artist Zhang Ting and her husband Lin Ruiyang, was suspected of being investigated for pyramid schemes, which continued to arouse concern.
Nandu and N video reporters combed the business map of Zhang Ting and his wife and found that in addition to founding Shanghai Dalway Company Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dalway Company"), the two were also involved in e-commerce, biotechnology, liquor, real estate, trade and other industries, and related more than 100 companies, the most well-known brand is TST Court Secret (hereinafter referred to as "TST"). While frantically recruiting agents, TST has also invited many entertainment industry people to spread huge publicity.
Behind the suspected pyramid scheme, an agent who had secretly done 4 years in the TST court revealed to the Nandu reporter that the company's internal propaganda of "zero investment, zero hoarding, zero risk" is not true, but needs to pull people's heads, "open cards", a large number of hoarding, the agent said that when he left, "did not earn money". In addition to being exposed to suspected pyramid schemes, Nandu reporters noted that for many years, the TST court was secretly mired in negative storms such as poor product quality and "bad face", and the company behind it, Dalway, had also been awarded compensation several times for arrears and commercial denigration.
Commercial map: there are more than 100 affiliated companies, and he was once the tax champion of Shanghai Qingpu
On December 29, 2021, a "Reply to the Verification Letter" issued by the Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, attracted attention. The "Reply" shows that according to a number of public reports and verifications, on June 5, 2021, the bureau filed an investigation into the suspected pyramid scheme of Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd., and reported it to the superior step by step. The bureau said in the letter that because the company used financial institutions to transfer or conceal funds involved in the transmission, the bureau had applied to the people's court to take preservation measures in accordance with the law, and the case was currently under further investigation.
On the same day, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Yuhua District of Shijiazhuang City confirmed to the Nandu reporter that the situation was true.
According to public information, the legal representative of Shanghai Dalway Company Trading Co., Ltd. is Lin Jirong (that is, Lin Ruiyang), founded by Lin Ruiyang and Zhang Ting in 2013, with a registered capital of 231.8 million yuan. The company owns the TST court secret brand that focuses on cosmetics and skin care products, and the TMM brand that focuses on household consumer goods, and mainly sells products through the O2O method of online mall secret app and offline physical stores.
Nandu reporter noted that according to the news released by the official WeChat account "Green Qingpu" of the Information Office of the People's Government of Qingpu District, Shanghai, Dalway Company has been listed many times as one of the "Top 100 Excellent Enterprises" and "Top 100 Taxpayer Enterprises" in Qingpu District, Shanghai, where its company is registered. In 2018, Dalway became the tax champion in Qingpu District. In 2021, Shanghai Yuedao E-commerce Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dalway Company, also won the tenth place in the Top 100 Outstanding Enterprises in Qingpu District.
Nandu reporter noted that in addition to the Dalway Company, the commercial territory of Zhang Ting and his wife is quite large.
According to the data of Tianyancha, from the perspective of equity structure, Dalway Company has 9 major shareholders, according to the subscription amount of capital, the current top three shareholders of the company are Shanghai Guangpeng Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Guangpeng"), Shanghai Shengji Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Shengji") and Shanghai Shangyang Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Shangyang"), holding 36.17%, 31.85% and 12.61% of the shares respectively.
Nandu reporters combed and found that the legal representatives of Shanghai Guangpeng and Shanghai Shengji are Zhang Shuqin (that is, Zhang Ting), Lin Ruiyang serves as a director of Shanghai Shangyang, and the affiliated companies of Zhang Ting and his wife are basically directly or indirectly controlled by the above three companies.
In addition to firmly controlling Dalway Company, as of now, there are 90 and 69 affiliated companies of Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang respectively, 77 and 53 companies with him as the legal representative, and 11 jointly related companies of the couple. The above companies are involved in e-commerce, biotechnology, liquor, real estate, trading and other industries.
It is worth noting that the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau once told nandu reporters, "We have filed an investigation into the suspected pyramid scheme of this company in June this year (2021). In September, 9 enterprises with Zhang Ting as the legal representative, executive director and general manager were deregistered centrally, and the reason for the cancellation was the resolution to dissolve. These 9 companies were all established in 2021 with a registered capital of 45 million yuan, and most of the companies related to Zhang Ting and established in 2021 have been deregistered. In the same month, Tao Hong, one of the shareholders of Darway Company, also withdrew from the Taobuting Culture media company co-founded with Zhang Ting and his wife, and switched to indirect cooperation through its subsidiaries.
Agent: Declare that 100 people "opened a card" and made a performance of 300,000 yuan can become a "chairman"
"Just let you play with your life to pull people, play with your life to fission." On December 30, 2021, Li Yue (pseudonym), who had been secretly engaged in agency work in the TST court for 4 years and achieved the level of "chairman", introduced the internal development model of TST to Nandu reporters: constantly pulling people's heads, hoarding goods, and earning money for "children and grandchildren". Li Yue said that the TST court secretly declared "zero investment, zero hoarding, and zero risk" when recruiting micro-business agents, but the above statement was not true, and she "did not earn money" when she left.
Li Yue recalled that when she first joined in 2016, her superiors told her that she did not make money just by doing retail, but had to "open a card", that is, to let others become registered members of the TST Court Secret App. Only the purchase of 2500 yuan of products has the right to "open a card" for others. A few months later, Li Yue opened forty or fifty cards, but still did not earn money. At this time, shangjia told her that only by being a "founder" and "chairman" could she buy a house and a car.
Shangjia told her that the condition for being the "chairman" was to "open cards" for 100 people. In those two months, Li Yue "desperately" "opened cards" for others, "and told anyone when he saw him, as if he was scared of the devil." The family didn't care, and my husband also quarreled. Her husband said that she was caught up in pyramid schemes, and Li Yue resolutely retorted, saying that the boss was a star, "How can people do pyramid schemes?" ”
After "opening cards" for 100 people, her upper family told her that she still needed three consecutive months, together with her "sons" to make at least 100,000 yuan per month performance, and through the company's assessment. Li Yuesui opened a credit card and Huabei to stock up on a large number of goods. Four months later, she became "chairman."
Li Yue, who became the "chairman", was not easy, because "if you can't complete the performance, you still can't make money." Li Yue later learned that the "high salary" of the so-called "chairman" was deliberately compiled, and some people would add a "0" after the real salary figure and then take a screenshot and forward it. "That's all fake. Anyway, I didn't see anyone around to buy a house and a car. Li Yue said.
Li Yue said that every month must complete 400,000 performance to get 4.0 or 4.5 rebates, the higher the performance, the higher the rebate, and the monthly performance can not be less than 200,000. In order to complete the performance, Li Yue hoarded a large number of goods and sold them at low prices, "and in the end he did not make money."
TST also often does activities to make agents stock up in large quantities in the name of "lowest price of the year" and "only sell for a few hours". "They are all kinds of routines for you, let you hoard goods, say what is 'zero risk' and 'zero hoarding', in fact, they are all fake." Li Yue initially hoarded more goods, and later only hoarded tens of thousands of yuan per month, "just to make up for performance." After a large number of stockpiles, she could only sell them at a low price.
On December 29, 2021, Li Xu, the sender of the above-mentioned verification letter and the head of Li Xu's anti-MLM anti-fraud team, told Nandu reporters that he had received a lot of inquiries about the "TST court secrets" before. Its team learned from the regulatory authorities that the frozen funds of the company involved were as high as 600 million yuan, which were frozen in two stages, 300 million yuan of the main company and 300 million yuan of an agent and team leader.
Endorsements: Many celebrities have stood for them, and experts say that they will bear legal responsibilities according to the situation
Nandu reporter combed and found that while frantically recruiting agents, TST Court secretly invited many entertainment industry people to spread huge publicity.
At the TST Court Secret 7th Dealer Conference and Star Concert held in October 2021, Wang Dongcheng, Xin and Chen Yiruzuo appeared as special guest stars. At the 2020 distribution conference, stars such as Wang Dongcheng and Tao Hong also appeared.
Ming Dao and Zhang Ting's husband and wife have a close relationship. A Nandu reporter searched for Mingdao's real name, Lin Chaozhang, and found that the legal representative of Shanghai Tingxuan Import and Export Co., Ltd., of which Mingdao is a shareholder, was Lin Ruiyang. The relevant WeChat public account tweet shows that Mingdao also appeared in Zhang Ting's live broadcast room to cooperate with the brand live broadcast with goods.
In addition, Lin Chiling and others have also endorsed the products of TST Ting Secret, Fan Bingbing, Liu Tao, Zhang Xinyu, He Jie and many other celebrities have also posted pictures and texts of their use of TST TST Secret products on social platforms, and Xu Zheng also used the brand mask publicly when participating in variety shows.
The relationship between actor Tao Hong and Zhang Ting is also very close. In 2014, when he forwarded the promotion weibo of the TST Court secret brand, Zhang Ting thanked Tao Hong; in 2016, the TST Court secretly held an elite summit forum, and Tao Hong also attended. In the TST Court Secret Official Mall, Tao Hong was once known as the "Founder of actress", and another "Founder of Actress" was Zhang Ting.
According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, Tao Hong was an investor in Shanghai Taobuting Culture Media Co., Ltd. and withdrew on November 15, 2021, but the company under his name still holds shares in Taobuting. Zhang Ting's husband, Lin Ruiyang, was a director and legal representative of the company and retired as a director and representative on 18 September 2020. At present, Lin Ruiyang is still the general manager of the company.
On December 30, 2021, Zhao Zhanzhang, deputy director of Beijing Yunjia Law Firm and special researcher of the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told Nandu reporters that in the case of Zhang Ting's suspected pyramid scheme, whether Tao Hong, who is a shareholder of the same company, needs to bear legal responsibility depends on the specific circumstances.
Zhao Zhanzhan said that shareholders and the company are independent legal subjects, and shareholders generally do not bear legal responsibility for the company's suspected pyramid schemes, unless the shareholders are also involved in the company's operations and are directly responsible for the pyramid scheme activities. If shareholders, especially star shareholders, participate in publicity activities as advertising spokespersons, they must comply with the provisions of the Advertising Law on advertising spokespersons.
Zhao Zhanzhang reminded that according to the Advertising Law, advertising spokespersons who recommend and prove goods and services in advertisements should be based on facts and in accordance with the law, and must not make recommendations or certificates for goods they have not used or services they have not received. If the advertising spokesperson has not actually used the product endorsed, or has not fulfilled the obligation to review the false advertisement, it needs to bear legal responsibility for it.
Dispute: Some agents publicly called the product "bad face", and the company had been awarded compensation for arrears and malicious slander
With the help of the development of micro-business agencies and star platform effects, TST Court Secret has become a hot brand in the micro-business circle. However, the Nandu reporter noted that for many years, the TST court was secretly caught in negative storms such as poor product quality and "bad face". Many consumers have reported on social platforms that they have skin problems after using TST-related products, including agents who secretly use TST.
As early as February 2016, a netizen who called himself the TST Court Secret "Gold Card Agent" posted on Weibo that after three consecutive months of using TST Court secret products, there were problems such as rough skin, peeling skin, blushing, and yellow water eyes that could not be opened. However, the TST court secret staff replied that it was the skin in the "detoxification".
The rumors of the "bad face" of TST's secret product gradually fermented, causing heated discussions. In September 2016, Zhang Ting also publicly responded to the matter, saying that it was not a whim to make his own TST mask, "honest work, down-to-earth business" For consumers' doubts, Zhang Ting said that due to the different skin types of users, they will have different reactions to cosmetics, her products are "compliant according to law, the three certificates are complete", and there are professional third-party inspection and quarantine agencies to do health and safety tests.
In addition to the products are deeply involved in quality problems, the company behind it, Dalway, has also been awarded compensation several times for arrears of payment and commercial denigration.
Nandu reporter combed and found that Dalway Company has been awarded compensation for arrears of money many times. According to the judgment document network, in November 2019, Darway Company entrusted Shanghai Hesong Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hesong Company") to design the Dalwei Qingpu Museum, and the total design consultant fee for the project was 530,000 yuan, which was paid in four installments. After paying the first three installments of 444,000 yuan, Darway Company defaulted on the remaining amount of 106,000 yuan, and was sued by Hesong Company. In August 2021, the Shanghai Qingpu District People's Court ordered Darway Company to pay Hesong Company 80,000 yuan in service fees.
In addition, in November 2018, Dalway purchased 20,000 electric eyelash curl gift boxes from Shanghai Luanwei Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Luanwei Company"), totaling 370,000 yuan. In June 2019, Dalway purchased a cleanser data cable from Luanway with a total amount of 783.3 yuan. Subsequently, Dalway Company was sued by Luan wei Company for defaulting on the payment of goods totaling 365,000 yuan. The court finally ruled that Darway Company paid the above arrears to Luan Wei Company and paid liquidated damages.
Dalway has also been awarded compensation for commercially defaming competitors. According to the judgment document network, in 2015, Darway Company and Lin Ruiyang spread false information on Weibo and WeChat platforms that the live yeast mask products of Zhenjiang Muji Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Muji Company") were fakes, constituting commercial defamation. In 2020, the court of second instance ordered it to compensate Muji Company for economic losses of 150,000 yuan.
Producer: Nandu Instant
Written by: Nandu reporter Wu Jialing Yang Tianzhi Fang Shiqi intern Zeng Han An Ziyi