UK national facing probe over info gathering on Chinese clients

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-09-02

The company profile registered on the Shanghai Administration
for Industry & Commerce website. (Photo/Xinhuanet)

A British national who has lived in China for many years along with his wife, is facing an investigation by Shanghai prosecutors for illegally collecting information on Chinese citizens and local businesses and selling them for a profit, the Shanghai police said on Wednesday.

Peter William Humphrey and his Chinese-American wife were referred to Shanghai prosecutors by local police on Aug 16, who on July 10 arrested them and confiscated more than 500 reports containing information on Chinese citizens and enterprises, which they had illegally obtained for their clients, according to the police investigation report.

Since 2003, Humphrey and his wife had been gleaning such individual information including addresses, family members, property and car ownership, inbound or outbound travel, and corporate information regarding these entities' licenses or operations.

They had compiled the information into reports and sold them at a high price to their clients in return for illicit profits at the expense of the rights and privacy of Chinese citizens and local businesses, the police stated.

Their clients were mainly multinational companies doing business with Chinese firms. These multinationals — manufacturing companies, financial service providers, law firms, among others — paid Humphrey to collect information on the Chinese companies they signed contracts with, the police said.

Humphrey's firm, the Hong Kong-registered ChinaWhys Company, sold an average of 100 reports each year, earning over 6 million yuan (US$980,220), according to the police.

The police also pointed out that ChinaWhys was a mere front, while a company the duo had registered in Shanghai was in charge of the actual operations.

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