Eight Shanghai journalists, PR executives detained over alleged extortion scam
Suspects said to have extorted cash from firms by threatening to run critical reports
Shanghai police have detained eight people from a financial news website and two public relations firms for allegedly threatening to print critical news reports about companies if they did not pay to suppress them.
Also held were senior executives at the finance-related PR companies Roya Investment Services, based in Shanghai, and Shenzhen-based Nukirin. They have been accused by the police of obtaining huge gains by blackmailing companies, China Central Television reported.
The financial news website issued a statement on its social media account yesterday saying its staff had been taken away by police on Wednesday night and it pledged to co-operate with the investigation.
Since November, the suspects had allegedly approached companies that were planning stock market listings or business restructuring or upgrades and then published reports that exaggerated the positive side of the firms and ignored the negative if the companies were willing to pay up.
The financial website posted reports attacking firms that refused to pay, putting pressure on them to place adverts or come up with cash, the state television report quoted police as saying.