Straight out of a Mills & Boon romance novel comes news that Vivian Shi and GlaxoSmithKline have joined forces again.
The whole Chinagate scandal is one that keeps resurfacing.
For those who haven't been following, I'll try and break it down with bullet points.
- GSK executives were sent a series of emails that alleged that bribery was rife amongst their operations in China and the main man behind the bribery network was GSK's Mark Reilly.
- GSK then hired the services of ChinaWhys, a company run by Peter Humphrey and his wife.
- Humphrey targeted Vivian Shi, GSK's former head of government affairs.
- According to Jim Edwards over at Business Insider, "Inside GSK, management suspected that Vivian Shi, the company's head of government affairs, sent the emails. There was no evidence, but GSK investigated her travel expenses and eventually she left the company sometime after October 2012 along with her boss, John Lepore, who joined media group Reed Elsevier as head global government affairs.
- Vivian Shi had, some years previously, been fired. GSK said it was on the grounds of alleged irregularities in travel expenses.
- Investigating partners Peter Humphrey and his wife, Yu Yingzeng, were released from a Chinese prison early last month after each serving close to two years, a sentence that was based on charges of "illegally obtaining private information."
- Mark Reilly, who originally told Humphrey that the whistleblower allegations were false, later went on to plead guilty. He was given a suspended prison sentence and deported.
- Glaxo were fined £300 million and issued a public apology for their corrupt behaviour.
Now, it appears, Glaxo and Shi have kissed and made up. Reuters are reporting that Glaxo have rehired Shi, although it is unclear in what capacity they have rehired her for.
This is almost as bizarre as Bobby Ewing and the famous shower scene.
More news coming if and when updated.
Bob Fiddaman.
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