Zheng Shuang Photo:VCG

Chinese actress Zheng Shuang who was fined 299 million yuan ($40.91 million) for tax evasion in 2021 was ordered by a Shanghai court to compensate an investor 60 million yuan ($8.21 million) for economic losses caused by her misconduct.

Zheng, whose reputation collapsed after she was accused of abandoning her two surrogate babies in the US in 2021, was ordered by the Shanghai Municipal Tax Service to pay fines for tax evasion of nearly 220 million yuan, and taxes of 72 million yuan in August of 2021.

Shanghai Songjiang District People's Court disclosed a court ruling on Tuesday that ordered Zheng to return a large sum of service fees totaling 30.5 million yuan, along with its interests and pay 60 million yuan in compensation to the investor of a TV series in which she starred. The series could not be broadcast due to her scandal.

The investor, a film and television investment company from Haining, East China's Zhejiang Province, and Zheng's company signed a service contract back January 13, 2016. The investor paid 30.5 million yuan to Zheng's company for planning services for a duration of a 70-workday period.

On the same day, the investor also invited Zheng to play the protagonist of the TV series and signed a supplementary contract with Zheng's company. Between January 18 and April 25, 2016, the investor paid 30.5 million yuan to Zheng's company as the service fee for the TV series.

In the contract, they reached an agreement that if the shooting or broadcast of the TV series was affected due to misconduct of the actress, the investor was granted the right to rescind the contract, and the actress had to return the payment and compensate the investor for any economic losses.

Zheng's company was set up on December 2, 2013 and was deregistered on November 23, 2017.

By the time Zheng was ordered to pay fines for tax evasion and taxes totaling 299 million yuan in August of 2021, the production of the TV series had already been completed.

The investor filed a lawsuit with the Songjiang court to request the cancellation of the contracts and asked Zheng to return the 30.5 million yuan in service fees and its interest, along with seeking compensation of 60 million yuan.

The Songjiang court issued the ruling on December 16, 2021 to cancel the contracts between the investor and Zheng's company which were dated February 24, 2021 and ordered Zheng to refund the service fee of 30.5 million yuan and compensate the investor for an economic loss of 60 million yuan.

Zheng appealed after the first-instance judgment was issued, but her appeal was dismissed by the second-instance judgment made by the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court on July 18, 2023. The verdict has taken legal effect.

Global Times