BAO’AN police have arrested three suspects from Magic Life Bio-Science Co. Ltd., which has allegedly cheated people out of 800 million yuan (US$116 million) through pyramid sales of so-called biological products.

    The Singapore-based company claimed to be engaged in global direct purchase cross-border e-commerce and to have adopted online and offline business modes to distribute their biological products.

    According to Bao’an police, the company claimed to have obtained a direct sales license and made a profit by collecting headcount fees, down payments and group commissions by selling its so-called apple stem cell and oligopeptide biological products on its website.

    An investigation showed that the company held seminars at which it boasted that its members could earn more than 10,000 yuan a day through its three-level development mode. A member could pay 613 yuan to join the business at the VIP level, the lowest level, or 3,000 yuan for the manager level or 10,000 yuan for a distributor level. They could get a certain commission, between 2.8 percent and 48 percent, based on the levels of new members they recruit.

    Since it started the pyramid sales in 2016, it has developed 290,000 members in 32 provinces and cities and been involved in scams totaling 800 million yuan, police said. The three suspects admitted to their crimes and the case is still under investigation. (Han Ximin)