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A court in Shanghai has ordered an actress to compensate an investor 60 million yuan for economic loss after the TV series she took part in was banned due to scandals.The actress, Zheng Shuang, fell from grace in 2021 after she was accused by her husband of abandoning two surrogate children in the United States. Following the scandal, tax authorities also discovered she had been evading taxes by signing multiple contracts to hide from authorities her real income.Her husband, Zhang Heng, took to Weibo that year to claim he had been stranded in the United States for more than a year, saying he was left alone to take care of and protect two young and innocent lives.
The scandal exploded on social media after Zhang’s post, with the associated hashtag racking up more than 3 billion views and drawing a torrent of criticism against Zheng.Local media at the time published a recording of an alleged phone call, during which Zheng’s parents allegedly suggested abandoning the children or giving them up for adoption, while Zheng allegedly expressed frustration that abortion was not a viable option given the mothers were 7 months pregnant at the time.Zheng was then dropped by many brands, including luxury fashion label Prada.
Back in 2021, Zheng was fined 299 million yuan for tax evasion after the scandal was reported and quickly went viral online.
The investor in this case is a film and television investment company from Haining City, Zhejiang Province. Zheng signed a service contract with the company on January 13, 2016, and her company was paid 30.5 million yuan for 70 working days of planning services.
The same investor also signed another contract with Zheng's company after inviting her to play the lead role in a TV drama series, paying her company a further 30.5 million yuan for the services.It's reported that a clause on the contracts signed between Zheng's company and the investor permitted the investor to apply for rescission of the contracts if Zheng was involved in misconduct. Zheng was to return all the payments and losses incurred by the investor had such a situation occur, according to the clause.The investor filed a lawsuit to cancel the contracts in 2021 following Zheng's scandal and Shanghai's Songjiang court annulled the contracts in December that same year.Zheng appealed after the first instance judgment, but her appeal was rejected by the second instance judgment made by the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court on July 18 this year.
*The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author.* Follow Us
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