On the evening of December 28, topics related to the investigation and prosecution of Zhang Tinglin Ruiyang’s company for alleged pyramid schemes were on Weibo’s hot searches, and its operating brand “TST Secret” once again aroused public attention. According to the review, the news originated from a WeChat public account "Li Xu Anti-Fraud Team" titled "Come!" published on the afternoon of December 24. Got it! The article "Secrets of TST Court" Suspected MLM funds were frozen, and the official response was true." The article disclosed a picture of the "Reply to the Verification Letter" signed by the Yuhua District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shijiazhuang City and stamped with the official seal.
Li Xu summarized the above three points as: entry fee, development downline, and team remuneration. Based on the review of TST's model, Li Xu's team believes that TST's model conforms to the above characteristics. Regarding TST's alleged pyramid scheme, on December 29, a reporter called TST to learn more about the company's business model, but the other party said, "There will be no response." Beibei's "growth path" began. Not long after joining, someone approached Beibei and said he wanted to apply for a card to join TST. Beibei asked how to open a card for her upline. At this time, Beibei was told that she needed to purchase 2,500 yuan of TST products to be eligible to open a card for her downline. What the other party said is that after you are qualified to open a card, your sister opens a card, and the sister opens a card again, which is equivalent to the son giving birth to a grandson. One life, two, three, and three give birth to all things, and "children, grandchildren, and grandchildren" will be bought. You can get commission on everything. These situations were also confirmed by another former agency interviewed by Economic Observer.
During this process, relatives and friends kept coming to remind Beibei to be careful about pyramid schemes, but Beibei didn't listen at all. Beibei thinks that elder brother (Lin Ruiyang) and sister Ting (Zhang Ting) are very good and lead everyone to make money. Beibei told reporters that TST previously held events every two months with various activities, including dealer conferences, celebrity concerts, cruises, etc., calling on agents to stock up on goods. At the meeting, there will be many "successful" agents who will speak out and tell with tears of gratitude how TST saved them from the fire and water, and how their eldest brother and sister Ting gave them a second life. Beibei said, "It was very touching when I heard it. "I felt that people had great love and I was too small, because when an agent got sick, the boss would pay for his medical treatment," Beibei said.
In addition to various conferences, there are other reasons to call for stocking up. Beibei said that for example, if you buy a product worth 20,000 yuan, you can join an elite group. In the elite group, you can add the celebrity boss’s WeChat account and let the boss shoot videos. But later Beibei realized that the WeChat account was not the boss’s WeChat account at all, but the avatar was the boss’s. In 2018, news that TST would be launched in 2019 began to appear frequently in the agent’s circle of friends. However, from the multiple posters and screenshots obtained by the reporter, the opinions are relatively confusing. Some say that TST will be listed on the Hong Kong stock market in 2019, while others say that it will be listed on the A-share market; some say that TST and agents will share 8 billion shares, and some have become 1 billion shares.
Regarding the current progress of the incident, Zhou Yang, director lawyer of Tianjin Chengli Law Firm, said that it is still an administrative coercive measure taken by the market supervision and management department in the process of market supervision. Whether it ultimately constitutes a pyramid scheme crime depends on The notification from the judicial authorities shall prevail. "There is only one essence of MLM crime, which is to defraud money. This must also be identified through the company structure, business model, value carrier and other aspects. Therefore, the main difficulty of MLM crime is to identify the MLM model. Once it can be identified, later on Judicial agencies tend to handle cases more efficiently.”
However, TST seems to have launched a new model. An article published by the public account "Li Xu Anti-Fraud Team" on December 29 mentioned that TST is shifting to a new model. According to the article, in the new model, if a member becomes a founder and establishes a company, and if the company's monthly performance assessment meets the standards, the member who mentors the member will be given a founder promotion incentive bonus (who must also be a founder). The difference from the old system is that the base of promotion service fees is adjusted to direct subordinates, and the proportion is increased to 6.
On December 29, TST Secrets’ official Weibo released information stating that Shanghai Dalwei Trading Co., Ltd. is a legally operating company. Since its establishment, it has always followed government guidance, adhered to legal operations, and paid taxes in accordance with the law. We are very grateful to the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang City for guiding our company to investigate risks. Currently, the company is operating normally and our company will actively cooperate with relevant departments. On the evening of December 29, TST’s secret Douyin live broadcast room was still selling goods normally.