Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Ting
According to the surging news, on April 18, the Dalway company founded and operated by Zhang Tinglin Ruiyang and his wife was engaged in pyramid schemes, resulting in 96 properties under the company's name being seized by the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau, worth 1.7 billion yuan.
On April 9, The Paper's reporter obtained from a person familiar with the matter the administrative penalty decision (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision Letter") of the Baokang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Xiangyang City, Hubei Province (hereinafter referred to as the "Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau") against Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Darway"). According to the decision, a large amount of evidence pointed to the TST Court's secret operation entity, that is, Darway, who organized and planned the illegal act of pyramid schemes, and Dalway was ordered to immediately stop the pyramid scheme, and at the same time was confiscated 19.2799 million yuan of illegal gains and fined 1.7 million yuan in accordance with the law.
The parent company of TST was identified as a pyramid scheme and fined 21 million yuan
As early as September 2021, the Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau determined that Darway constituted pyramid schemes and imposed administrative penalties on Darwei.
According to the decision, Baokang County, Xiangyang City, received an anonymous report on May 7, 2021, saying that someone had engaged in pyramid schemes through the "TST Court Secret" by pulling people into members. After filing and investigating the case on May 25, the Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau determined that the "red card" bonus system formulated by Darway was a pyramid scheme, and Darway constituted an organization to plan the illegal act of pyramid schemes, but did not treat it as a crime.
The Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau found in the decision that there was no illegal situation in the bonus system for blue card members, but the bonus system for red card members belonged to the pyramid scheme, requiring the developed personnel to develop other personnel to join, forming an up-down-line relationship, and calculating and paying on-line remuneration based on the sales performance of the down-line is the situation referred to in the relevant provisions of the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes".
The decision discloses that From January 1, 2018 to July 2021, Dalway has developed more than 7.07 million members, including more than 659,000 red card members. During this period, the main business income of The Dalway Red Card reached 9.17 billion yuan, and the profit of 19.2799 million yuan was identified as illegal income.
The decision is printed with the words "confidential", but on the last page it is marked that "the market supervision and management department will announce the information on this administrative punishment decision to the public in accordance with law". As of April 9, the surging news reporter could not find the decision on the Baokang County People's Government information disclosure website.
On April 10, the surging news reporter called the Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau, and the duty officer said that he did not understand the relevant situation and suggested that the reporter call again tomorrow to consult the staff of the anti-unfair competition section of the bureau.
It is worth noting that in just half a month, another province's district and county municipal supervision bureau filed a case against Dalway. The staff of the Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province (hereinafter referred to as the "Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau") told the surging news reporter that in early June 2021, the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau had filed a case against Dalway, and on June 5, Dalwei was suspected of pyramid schemes.
The staff of the Anti-Unfair Competition Section of the Municipal Supervision Bureau of Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang, told the surging news reporter that TST has three characteristics of pyramid schemes, namely the pyramid structure of pulling heads, paying entry fees and team remuneration.
On April 9 this year, a person familiar with the matter revealed to the surging news reporter that the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau is still further investigating the case.
There is a dispute over the start time of the MLM and the amount of the illegal amount
The "red card" bonus system identified as a pyramid scheme by the Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau is the "red card" and "blue card" system implemented by TST on January 1, 2018.
The surging news reporter obtained the "blue card" and "red card" bonus system table from a number of TST agents, the core of which is that the consumption amount (also known as "team performance") reaches a certain level, and the corresponding proportion of rebates can be obtained when the salary is paid next month. Among them, the "blue card" does not have the qualifications to open a card to others, and the bonus system is also a big gap with the "red card".
According to li xu, a private anti-MLM team, TST adopts a "regular price rebate" model. Taking the "red card" as an example, the "red card" agent is divided into 7 levels, each level takes the same price, but the different levels of rebates are different, so the higher the team performance, the more rebates.
According to an agent who has been at TST for 6 years, the bonus system before 2018 is divided into general generation (reason), original family, derivative family, gold card (size gold card), silver card. In 2016 and 2018, Dalway changed the name of the bonus system several times, and from January 1, 2018, it was changed to a red and blue card system.
The staff of the Anti-Unfair Competition Section of the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau revealed to the surging news reporter that Dalwei's pyramid schemes began in 2013, and according to the data held by the bureau, nearly 10 million people have participated.
In addition, the amount involved in the MLM is also disputed.
The Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau determined that Darwei's illegal income was 19.2799 million yuan, plus a total fine of about 21 million yuan. Previously, the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau applied to freeze Dalway for 600 million yuan.
According to Tianyan's investigation, on July 22 and 23 last year, Darway added two new pieces of case filing information, the case numbers were (2021) E 0626 Xingbao No. 1, (2021) E0626 Zhibao No. 57, and the plaintiffs were Xiangyang Baokang County Market Supervision and Administration Bureau. The trial procedure of the former case was a non-litigation act preservation review, which was concluded on July 23, while the latter case was closed a month later, but the surging news reporter did not inquire about the amount involved in the preservation review.
On December 24 last year, the Shijiazhuang Yuhua District Municipal Supervision Bureau replied to the anti-MLM team that after inquiring into Dalway's bank account, it was found that the company used financial institutions to set up bank accounts and transfer and hide a large number of market funds. In order to prevent the state from causing major losses, the bureau applied to the court to take property preservation measures in accordance with the law, and has taken preservation measures for 600 million yuan of funds involved in transmission.
After being identified as pyramid schemes, it is still said to be a legal operation, and the agents do not stop selling goods
On December 29, 2021, the official Weibo of "TST Court Secret" responded that Shanghai Darway Trading Co., Ltd. is a legally operated company, and since its inception, it has always followed the guidance of the government, adhered to legal operation, and paid taxes according to law; thank you very much to the Hebei Shijiazhuang government for guiding the company to check the risks, the company is currently operating normally, and the company will actively cooperate with the relevant departments. On the same day, actor Zhang Ting forwarded the above statement through his personal Weibo.
According to the decision issued by the Xiangyang Baokang County Municipal Supervision Bureau, as early as September last year, Darwei's "red card" system has been determined to constitute pyramid schemes, and Darwei as a business entity also constitutes the illegal act of organizing and planning pyramid schemes.
Some TST agents told the surging news reporter that the company's operation was normal, and the surging news reporter showed that no one answered when he called Darway on April 10.
At present, the surging news reporter saw from the WeChat circle of friends of a number of TST agents that its goods were not affected. Even at the end of January last year, TST suspected pyramid schemes were investigated and exposed by a large number of media, some TST agents are still releasing support dynamics in the circle of friends, a "group" general agent also publishes products and copywriting in the WeChat group every day, and TST agents carry goods non-stop.
According to the official website, in 2013, Lin Ruiyang and Zhang Ting founded Dalway, and in the same year, they founded TST (TIN'SECRET). According to the data of Tianyan, the main body of TST operation is Darway. TST focuses on skin care products, cosmetics, etc., and also launches health tea, red wine and other products, which was once known as the "first brand of micro-business".