SHENZHEN police have detained the CEO of Fruit Camp, a Shenzhen-based chain of fruit stores that shut its doors nationwide over the past two weeks.

    The company has allegedly defaulted on wages worth nearly 10 million yuan, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    Wu Hui, CEO of Fruit Camp, allegedly owes 9.6 million yuan (US$1.48 million) in unpaid wages to more than 1,500 employees, according to the Longhua New Area authority, adding that the new area government is investigating the case and will hand it over to police if the company is accountable for the owed money, the newspaper said in yesterday’s report.

    Wu has been detained by police in Longhua New Area, and a police investigation into the company is underway, according to the Longhua public security subbureau.

    The chain of stores have shut their doors in many cities over the past half month, with some employees demanding unpaid wages at the company’s headquarters in Longhua New Area in recent days.

    As of Saturday, 946 employees have applied for labor arbitration with the authorities in Longhua New Area, according to yesterday’s report.

    The Daily’s report noted that company problems with employees in other cities should be handled with the cities’ local labor departments.

    Rumors circulated last week that the owner of Fruit Camp had run out of money and fled, following the sudden closure of many stores across the city.

    Shenzhen residents with prepaid cards at Fruit Camp have complained with the Shenzhen Consumer Council, asking for a refund. Many said they had used only several hundred yuan out of several thousand yuan on their prepaid cards.

    Fruit Camp required consumers to prepay at least 2,000 yuan to open a prepaid card, which would then have 4,000 yuan of credit.

    Some said they opened a prepaid card at Fruit Camp stores because the stores squeezed fruit juice for them for free and were always well stocked.

    The consumer council said Thursday afternoon that one of the chain’s founders, only identified as Qu, promised the company would return the money to consumers within 10 days of a refund request.

    (Zhang Yang)