Shanghai police have formally arrested a British fraud investigator who has been detained for the past six weeks amid a corruption probe into the activities of multinational pharmaceutical companies in China.
The probe has so far largely focused on GlaxoSmithKline, a former client of Peter Humphrey, one of China’s best known corporate investigators. He and his wife, a US citizen, and his professional partner, Yu Yingzeng, were informally detained at about the same time that the GSK investigation was made public last month.
The UK consulate in Shanghai said Mr Humphrey had been arrested on Monday but gave no details of any allegations. News of Mr Humprhey’s arrest, and that of his wife, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited a family statement saying the pair were suspected of breaking Chinese laws relating to “purchasing personal information”. The statement said the two had lawyers and were receiving consular assistance and that they were being treated well. The family could not be reached for comment.