21世纪传媒总裁承认新闻敲诈

The former CEO of a prominent business publication in China has admitted that he ordered employees to blackmail companies going public.

As the investigation proceeds, more suspects have become involved in the extortion case.

More than 30 people are being investigated after 21 Century Media was found to be connected to extortion allegations.

The victims include some 200 listed companies and well-known businesses from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

All of them were said to be planning to go public, restructuring, or in the midst of making a business deal when they were approached by the group.

Shen Hao, the former CEO of the media group, who's now been detained, says he saw it an opportunity to seek profit.

"Because the companies going public cared very much about protecting their reputations, the target I set for Liu Dong and Zhou Bin was to force 70-percent of IPO companies to sign advertising contracts with us. This is unrealistic in normal business cooperation. So I was actually forcing them to commit crime, to blackmail those companies."

If companies rebuffed the approach, malicious articles would be published attacking them.

Detective Cao Qimin, who's been following the case, says some PR firms have also helped 21 Century Media extort money.

"They then collude with PR firms such as Royal Investment Service in Shanghai, Nukirin Investment in Shenzhen. With those negative news report, they force companies to sign advertisement contracts, and ask for high service charge."

After the companies handed over large payments, the publisher would help rebut or conceal negative news reports about them.

There was even an assessment mechanism for the extortion.

Before Liu Dong was detained, he had been leading the 21st Century Business Herald, a website under the media group.

Liu says his boss Shen Hao once threatened to fire him if his quota was not met.

"At the beginning of this year, Shen Hao told me that if I can not agree to his demands, he would consider finding another person to replace me. He did say that."

But he also admitted that he would be rewarded with 800-thousand yuan if he fulfilled his quota.

The authorities have revoked the website's media credentials.

21Century Media claims to be China's largest professional financial and business media company.

For CRI, I'm Cao Yuwei.