Actor’s agent jailed for embezzling 2.33m yuan

Song Zhe, Chinese actor Wang Baoqiang’s former agent, was sentenced to six years in prison for embezzlement on Thursday morning, while accomplice Xiu Yule, an artists’ coordinator, was jailed for three years.

They took advantage of Song’s position as Wang’s agent and the manager of Wang’s studio to falsely report the actor’s activities and advertising endorsement fees, the Chaoyang District People’s Court in Beijing said in a statement posted online on Thursday.

Song’s name became widely known online in August 2016 when Wang, the star of the 2015 comedy Detective Chinatown, revealed on social media that his wife, Ma Rong, had an extramarital affair with Song. Wang said the affair had seriously damaged the marriage and their family and he was filing for divorce.

A year later, in September 2017, Chaoyang district police announced that they had detained Song for alleged embezzlement. He was detained on Sept 12 after the police received a report from Wang’s studio that accused Song of abusing his position as studio manager and taking clients’ payments for personal use.

After an investigation, police formally arrested Song and Xiu, who had worked for another entertainment company, on embezzlement charges on Sept 26, 2017.

According to the statement from the court on Thursday, Song misappropriated about 2.33 million yuan ($340,000) during his employment from 2014 to 2016, about 1.68 million yuan of which was embezzled with Xiu.

“After the trial, the court found the defendant Song used his position to embezzle the company’s property as an employee,” the statement said. “The defendant Xiu Yule provided assistance to Song, which made her the accomplice. The two have committed crimes of embezzlement and the amount was huge. Therefore they should be punished according to law.”

The court said it decided to mitigate the punishment since Song and Xiu had pleaded guilty at the trial and had agreed to pay back all the money to the studio.

Song has not yet lodged an appeal, but Xiu has.

Ma and Wang divorced this year.