The company of millionaire actress Liu Xiaoqing was fined 7.1 million yuan yesterday. Her brother-in-law, Jing Jun, was sentenced to three years in jail for tax crimes worth about the same amount.
Handing down the verdict for the trial, the Beijing Chaoyang Court said that Jing, general manager of Beijing Xiaoqing Culture and Arts Company owned by Liu, had falsified the company's books by inflating its expenditure and suppressing income between 1996 and 2001.
The falsification allowed the company to evade tax payments worth 6.8 million yuan.
Jing was held responsible because he was directly in charge of the company's financial matters during the period.
The company was also charged with withholding tax payments worth 418,574 yuan that it was supposed to pay on behalf of crew members and actors on two television series it made between 1997 and 2000.
The court was quoted by Xinhua as saying that Jing received a light punishment after he gave the court details of the evasion.