Protesting Tibetan pyramid scheme victims rounded up, their Chinese fraudsters untouched

(TibetanReview.net, Nov09, 2009)  More than 3,000 people’s armed police rounded up a group of 98 Tibetans early in the morning of Nov 6 from Tianjin Municipality in China where they had been staging a sit-in protest in front of TIENS corporate headquarters, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA) online Nov 6. The company had cheated Tibetans from across the Tibetan Plateau of their hard-earned savings and properties with a pyramid scheme. The Tibetans, who were representing the victims, were now likely to be taken to Chengdu to be delivered into the custody of their respective local authorities.

The health product company appeared to have particularly targeted gullible Tibetans across the three traditional Tibetan provinces of U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo, with promises of high returns on their initial investment. Those who brought in additional investors as instructed by the company in a pyramid scheme of more returns for more investors brought in also saw their friends and family cheated out of their hard earned savings and family properties.

The company apparently had the right political connections, for while officials from across Tibet arrived in Tianjin to convince the protesting Tibetans from their respective localities to return home, there was no question of any action being taken against its fraudulent officials. The protesting Tibetans were roused from their sleep, beaten, handcuffed and dragged into waiting vehicles.

The report cited Tsering Dhargyal, 54, from the Chamdo, as saying members of the group first reported being contacted by company officials on Jul 2, 2007. “For an initial investment of 2,800 yuan (US $410) from each individual, we were promised great prosperity in return. They called it a big family business, which is not only good for Tibetan people, but for the nation as a whole. In that way we collected money and joined the business.”

The company told them that it generated business not by selling a product but through people.

As to how the purported scheme worked, Dhargyal was quoted as saying, “For example, I went alone, and they said that my responsibility was to bring two people. The next two people must bring two more, and this would continue until it reached thousands.”