GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) on Sunday confirmed the existence of an intimate video recording of its former China head, Briton Mark Reilly, which the Sunday Times reported began a bribery investigation that has damaged the drugmaker’s business in China.
The Sunday Times said the recording was shot without Reilly’s knowledge or consent at his Shanghai apartment and showed the Briton, who is separated from his wife, with his Chinese girlfriend.
The video was e-mailed to top GSK executives in March last year, the newspaper said. A GSK spokesman confirmed the tape existed, but did not comment on how it related to the alleged bribery scandal.
In July last year, Chinese police accused Britain’s biggest drugmaker of transferring as much as 3 billion yuan (US$482 million) through travel agencies to bribe doctors and officials.
Reporters were not able to verify the link between the tape and the bribery case.
Chinese police filed corruption charges against Reilly in May and barred him from leaving China. He could face decades in prison.
Reilly has not been reachable for comment while his lawyer has declined to talk to the media. Reilly’s whereabouts are unknown.
China’s investigation into GSK and its scrutiny of numerous other foreign and local drugs companies have frightened foreign pharmaceutical executives so much that some fear they could be jailed and have asked their lawyers if they should temporarily leave the country.
GSK, which described the bribery allegations as “shameful” when they came to light last year, said on Sunday that it was continuing to cooperate fully with Chinese authorities on the ongoing investigation.
“The issues relating to our China business are very difficult and complicated,” it added in a statement.
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.
Bribery allegations involving GSK have come to light since then in other countries and GSK is now investigating claims that 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.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last