GSK crisis: Two British fathers face Chinese prison in a tale of corruption and sex

Telegraph ^ | 7/2014 | Patrick Sawyer

[mgist]

A GlaxoSmithKline executive and a British private detective and his wife, who were initially hired by GSK to investigate smears, face prison in a tale akin to a spy mystery The story has all the makings of a sensational spy thriller, from allegations of corruption by one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical firms and the appearance of a sex tape involving a senior executive, to the arrest of British citizens by a foreign power. It certainly cannot have been what Mark Reilly expected when he was promoted to head-up GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pharmaceuticals division in China, in 2009.

A 25-year veteran of the company, his job was to bring about a dramatic increase in the firm’s revenues and he was soon setting ambitious targets for himself and his staff. With a population of 1.3 billion and a rapidly growing economy, the potential for GSK in China was huge. But that understandable hunger to develop new markets for the firm’s products appears to have left Mr Reilly now facing the prospect of a long sentence inside the country’s notoriously strict prison system.

The 52-year-old executive and father of two was accused by the Chinese authorities in May this year of presiding over a “massive bribery network” in which doctors and health officials were paid £320 million in bribes over several years.

[SES1066]

I wonder if this is a case of bribery or normal business unless you are a foreign-owned company that the government wants to shake down?

[vbmoneyspender]

I’m betting this is a case where the bribes were illegal because they were paid to the wrong people.

[babygene]

If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.

If they were here and they sent a lobster to China they could be facing 5 years in prison...

[Squidpup]

[papertyger]

I gotta give the Chicoms this: they really are commies, not ideologically veiled mobsters.