Taiwanese Star Ding Xiao Qin Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison For Selling Fake Luxury Goods Online
She reportedly made an illegal profit of TW$170K (S$8K).
Taiwanese celebrity Ding Xiao Qin, who is also known as T-ana, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for selling counterfeit luxury goods online. Since 2015, 12 different buyers have lodged reports against her and prosecutors say that she made an illegal profit of TW$170K (S$8K).
Court documents show that Xiao Qin, 41, first started setting up accounts on platforms such as Carousell and Shopee, where she advertised that she was selling branded goods that were bought in Europe. In her listings, she claimed to have authenticity cards for all her items, and that she was only selling them because she was migrating and couldn’t bring everything along with her.
Buyers were convinced by her story and bought everything from bags, shoes and clothing from Xiao Qin’s store, only to receive knockoffs in the mail. For some buyers, they ended up not receiving anything at all.
When she was first arrested, Xiao Qin claimed to have no knowledge of the scams and said that it was a Singaporean named Natasha who was in charge of selling the goods. However, investigations showed that it was Xiao Qin’s accounts that were involved, and that there was no evidence to prove the existence of this mystery Singaporean.
Xiao Qin was then sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, but decided to appeal her case. During her appeal, she pleaded for leniency and shared that she has since reached settlements with 11 of the 12 victims. The last victim, Xiao Qin added, was uncontactable. She revealed that the amount of compensation she paid each person was “more than what they lost”.
During the appeal hearing, she asked the judge to reduce her sentence as she is a low-income indigenous person, and that she was getting paid TW$200 (S$9) an hour working as a sales assistant at a furniture store.
The court eventually upheld the guilty verdict, but reduced her sentence by a year. Xiao Qin will now have to serve two-and-a-half years in prison, but will not have to pay a fine. The Supreme Court has since rejected her second appeal.
Xiao Qin first started her career in showbiz as a singer in 1999, she then moved to to acting before establishing herself as a style and fashion influencer. However, she is most known for dating 5566’s Tony Sun though that relationship ended in 2008.
Photos: PBE Media
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