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 Peter Humphrey and Yu Yingzeng ran risk consultancy ChinaWhys, whose
clients included GSK, and their testimony is being closely watched
for any comments on the British drugmaker.
The couple's arrest over a year ago coincided with a government
probe into allegations that GSK staff had funnelled hundreds of
millions of pounds through travel agencies to bribe local doctors
and health officials to boost sales and raise prices.
The prosecutors, laying out the charges at the start of the trial,
said the couple had illegally obtained more than 200 items of
private information, including household registration data, real
estate documents and phone records, and then re-sold the data. GSK
was not mentioned in the charge sheet.
According to the court's official microblog, Yu said she did know
that the third-party consultants ChinaWhys had hired to get the data
had done so illegally.
"In other countries, we were able to conduct similar checks,
including personal information and private transactions, legally
through courts," said Yu. "If we had known that it was illegal, my
husband and I would have destroyed all traces of this information."
While Chinese authorities have not openly connected the arrest of
the couple to the GSK probe, Humphrey said in a note last year when
he was already in detention that he felt "cheated" by GSK, adding
that the drugmaker had not shared the full details of the bribery
allegations.
A GSK spokesman has declined to comment on the trial. The drugmaker
said in July that the issues relating to its China business were
"very difficult and complicated."
Foreign reporters were given unusual access to the trial after
lobbying by the U.S. and British embassies.
The court's microblog was updated regularly. A television in the
media room also momentarily broadcast a grainy image which showed
Humphrey, dressed in a polo t-shirt and jacket, sitting down inside
the courtroom. He appeared to look weary.
The couple's son, Harvey, was also in the courtroom with embassy
officials.
CORPORATE DATA IN DEMAND
The trial has unnerved China's risk consultancy community, whose
members are much in demand by multinationals and foreign investors
for information on potential partners or firms in China, where such
data is not easily available.
It also coincides with a growing number of Chinese anti-trust probes
that have seen authorities raid offices of Western firms,
highlighting the obstacles foreign companies face in navigating
China's murky business world.
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Foreign firms must adhere to anti-corruption laws while operating in
China amid more stringent enforcement of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act and an increase in the number of Chinese firms
involved in overseas deals.
Humphrey is expected to plead guilty to the charges, which carry a
maximum sentence of 3 years in jail. A verdict in the trial could
take up to a month.
He worked for Reuters as a journalist in the 1980s and 1990s, and
has previously apologised on state television for breaking any
Chinese law.
In testimony read out in court, Humphrey said the due diligence
services offered by ChinaWhys largely relied on publicly available
records and interviews with executives.
"For projects that required background checks, we engaged a
third-party consultancy that provided household registration data.
We were only paying for their services; we never purchased or
obtained such data directly ourselves," he said, according to a
transcript released by the court's official microblog.
Humphrey also said he had not sold the private information obtained.
China has in recent years moved to tighten its privacy laws. In
2009, it amended its criminal code to ban the transfer, sale or
gathering of Chinese citizens' information by government firms and
companies involved in telecoms, transportation, education and
medical treatment.
(Additional Reporting by Engen Tham and Fayen Wong; Editing by Miral
Fahmy)
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