Editor's Note: Three Fuzhou officials were recently fired after being implicated in a sex-tape bribery scandal. This article, translated from QQ News, gives details on the sex scandal and evolving case against 22 officials and their blackmailers. A number of local officials frequented a tea shop in Fuzhou where they were seduced by the young women working there. Many of the officials were filmed or photographed having sex with the young women, who later asked for large sums of money to hand over the tapes. One official refused to pay and turned everyone involved in to the police. The scandalous case is still under investigation so many details are still unknown.

On May 29, three Fuzhou officials were fired after being named in a sex-tape extortion case that may include up to 22 local officials.

A businessman invited government officials to his tea shop where they were seduced by young women and secretly filmed or photographed having sex, according to The Beijing News. The women then tried to extort the officials, threatening to release their photos. One official refused to pay and reported the case to the police.

Blackmail and Bribes

One of the women from the tea shop blackmailed officials for more than 200,000 Yuan each. If they did not pay up, she threatened to report them to the Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The official who reported the case requested to remain anonymous. He reported the case to the police earlier this year.

The Taiwanese owner of the tea shop has been in business in Fuzhou for many years. The women who worked for the tea shop were on average 20 years old, while the government officials who visited were usually in their 50s. The visits were instigated by the government officials, and many of them believed they had built relationships with the women.

The identity and motives of the suspects, the key officials involved in the case, and the total amount of hush money given to the tea shop women is still unknown.

Lei Zhengfu Parallels

This case is being tolled in the media as Fuzhou's own version of the 2012 Lei Zhengfu scandal. Lei Zhengfu was a high-level Chongqing official who was removed from his position after screen shots from a video of him having sex with a young girl were posted online by a disgruntled businessman. The businessman had been blackmailing Lei for years to keep the video quiet.

In Lei's scandal, 21 officials were seduced by a woman named Zhao Hongxia, taped having sex with her, and blackmailed to keep the tapes quiet. The case in Fuzhou has a lot of similarities with Lei's. Lei was sentenced to 13 years in prison for accepting bribes, and the head of the group who extorted him was sentenced to 10 years.

Mastermind Detained

The Fuzhou case is reported to involve 22 officials, more than Chongqing's 2012 case. Fuzhou police have already arrested the owner of the tea shop and the “tea sisters,” who worked with him. The suspects are being held at Fuzhou's Minhou Detention Center.

The media does not yet know the identity of all 22 officials involved in the case. Fuzhou's Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision Bureau both declined to participate in an interview on the case. The police worked the case for eight months without leaking information to the media.

The women who worked in the tea shop were generally very young and went through special training to perform gongfu tea ceremonies before beginning work.

Source: QQ News

Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.

Keywords: Fuzhou officials sex tape Fuzhou officials bribes