TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Having mysteriously disappeared for three months after being accused of evading taxes with "Yin-Yang contracts," China's state-run Securities Daily (證券日報) yesterday (Sept. 6) reported Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing (范冰冰) is "under control, and will accept the legal decision."
In the Securities Daily report, which was taken offline a few hours after it was posted, an influential figure in Beijing told the newspaper that Fan is still in prison and "it's really tragic, and won't be able to get out." The article also stated that the scandal related to her contracts are only the "tip of the iceberg" of her legal problems, which could extend to involvement in bank lending and corruption cases.
In May of this year, CCTV anchor Cui Yongyuan (崔永元) leaked details on a social media post of a set of Yin-yang contracts - double contracts for the same project - Fang had allegedly signed for the Feng Xiaogang film "Cell Phone 2." One of the contracts was worth US$2 million, while the second contract was worth $10 million, reported Asiaone.
Cui alleged that instead of paying US$12 million in total earnings, the first contact would be the only one reported to tax authorities, while she could purportedly pocket earnings from the second contract tax free.
At the time the 36-year-old actress denied any wrongdoing and hired a team of lawyers for her defense. Fan last posted to her Weibo account on June 2 and has not been seen in public since.
ETtoday reports that Fan was initially taken into custody in late June, but was released after two days. However, the report stated that she was again arrested in early August and has been in prison since then, with industry insiders saying this is already the equivalent to a "death sentence" in the entertainment business from which she "really cannot come back from."
