UK’s GSK hired Briton, American for illegal Chinese pvt info sales

A foreign couple, hired by British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as private sleuths, was indicted by Chinese prosecutors for illegally obtaining and selling personal information of Chinese citizens.

The couple — 58-year-old British national Peter William Humphrey and his wife 61-year-old American Yu Ying Zeng — was charged in Shanghai's No 1 Intermediate People's Court, becoming the first foreigners to face such charges.

They were arrested in August last year. They were hired by GSK China's Mark Reilly as private eyes in 2013, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

In May, Chinese anti-corruption probe indicted British executive of GSK along with 45 others for committing bribery on a big scale to firm up its business in China.

In case against the couple, prosecutors found that they illegally trafficked a huge amount of personal information on Chinese citizens to seek profits via a company called ChinaWhys Co Ltd., which was registered in 2004 in Shanghai.

The personal information traded by the couple included household registration details, background of family members, real estate, vehicles, call log and exit-entry records.

Apart from buying information illegally from others, the couple also obtained the information by means such as secret photography, infiltration or tailing after someone.

Based on the information, the couple compiled so-called ‘reports’ and sold them at high prices to their clients, most of which are China-based multinational corporations, including GSK China.

Humphrey told reporters that in April 2013 he was contacted by Mark Reilly, then GSK China's general manager, and Zhao Hongyan, its legal department director, and was prepaid 100,000 yuan ($16,143).

Reilly asked him to find the informant who disclosed GSK China's bribery scandals to Chinese authorities and GSK's executives.

Humphrey said that after the investigation, he found the bribery claim was valid based on his work experience of about a dozen years. He felt he was ‘betrayed and used’ and GSK China's suspicions about the informant was ‘unfounded’, Xinhua report said.

Humphrey also admitted to having used illegal means to do his investigation, including buying others' information and tailing after them, it said.