Shanghai : The top customs official in the city of Dalian has been placed under investigation following accusations that he helped female international professional shoppers smuggle goods into the country in exchange for sex.
37-year-old Guan Zhaojin was reported to the Dalian customs office last August by his wife who caught him cheating with another woman and soon managed to unravel a scandalous web of affairs. In a video she filmed which has since leaked online, Guan, clad only in his underwear, is seen admitting to sleeping with multiple other women.
The whistleblowing wife has charged her husband with having quid pro quo affairs with at least 14 different professional shoppers, as well as other abuses of power including accepting bribes.
Guan has been suspended from his job while the customs office conducts an investigation. He has insisted upon his innocence, claiming that he was already cleared of any wrongdoing in an initial investigation back in September.
The women that Guan is accused of aiding are known in China as “daigou” (代购), shoppers who go abroad to buy luxury goods before taking the items back to China to sell, typically via WeChat. The business is not well regulated and if they can avoid paying customs duties on the goods, the women can make quite a tidy profit.