After being reported and inspected, a company in Qianshan City, Anhui Province was exposed for adding “Viagra” ingredients to its deer penis pill products. Previously, this product was being sold in various live-streamed rooms on video platforms.
On March 15th, Pengpai News obtained the court judgment from the informant in this case, which revealed that the company’s leader, Wang Liguo, was sentenced to 9 years and 11 months in prison, along with a fine, for crimes including producing and selling toxic and harmful food.
Live-streamed room selling deer penis pills containing “Viagra” reported by professional counterfeiters
Chen Mengli from Hunan Province reported to Pengpai News that a company in Anhui added “Viagra” ingredients to its deer penis pills for production and sale, leading to a police investigation.
Chen Mengli openly admitted to being a professional counterfeiter. In February 2022, after watching a live stream in the room of host “Xu Dazui,” he spent thousands of yuan to purchase several boxes of deer penis pills. Later, he found that the host of the room, using the account name “Fengyu Team – Spicy Muscle Wang Fei,” was also selling the same deer penis pills. This host was certified with a V badge as a “WFF professional card athlete” and had 800,000 fans.
Both hosts were selling products from the same manufacturer, priced at 180 yuan for “Deer Penis Pills” and 980 yuan for “Deer Treasure Pills,” both implying “aphrodisiac” effects.
Pengpai News saw that “Deer Treasure Pills” were packaged in a wooden box containing two bottles, each with six pills, totaling 120 grams. The package information showed ingredients including black sesame, deer penis, black beans, mulberries, black goji berries, xylitol, honey, astragalus, farmed sika deer gelatin, and ginseng.
Chen Mengli said that after taking the pills, he felt his heart rate increase, his face flush, nausea, and dizziness. He then decided to take the products to a testing institution for analysis. The testing report from Henan Taiqing Quality Inspection Company showed that both “Deer Penis Pills” and “Deer Treasure Pills” contained sildenafil.
“Sildenafil” is a vasodilator. Overdosing can cause cardiovascular problems. It is a prescription drug that should be strictly controlled, widely known in China by the nickname “Viagra.”
According to the “Interpretation of Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases Involving Endangering Food Safety” and the “List of Substances Illegally Added to Health Foods (First Batch)” issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, “Sildenafil” is identified as a “toxic and harmful non-food material” as stipulated in the Criminal Law.
The product’s outer packaging indicates that the client is Anqing Qianshan Jiumu Royal Deer Industry Co., Ltd., and the manufacturer is Anhui Zhishutang Deer Product Development Co., Ltd. After collecting materials and notarizing them, Chen Mengli reported to the Qianshan Public Security Bureau’s Food and Drug Environmental Crime Investigation Brigade.
A special team was established by the Qianshan Public Security Bureau to investigate the case, and subsequently, several people were taken into compulsory measures.
The Qianshan Market Supervision Administration disclosed in its published 2022 typical cases in the field of people’s livelihood that during a sudden inspection on May 27, 2022, regarding the company, suspected drug-added deer penis pills (2850 bottles) and deer blood pills (290 bottles) were found on the spot, along with 180,000 loose deer penis pills and 51,100 loose deer blood pills.
Law enforcement officers sampled the above products for inspection. Upon examination, some batches of deer products contained ingredients such as tadalfil and sildenafil. As of the inspection, the value of the deer products containing added drug ingredients amounted to 504,362 yuan, with illegal gains of 28,540 yuan.
Company leader convicted of multiple crimes, sentenced to 9 years and 11 months
The seller of the deer penis pills purchased by Chen Bin, Anhui Xu Dazui Cultural Media Co., Ltd., represented by Mr. Hu, stated in an interview with Pengpai News that the company was previously unaware of the illegal addition of the product. After the police intervention, they cooperated with the investigation. Since April 2022, the sale of this product has been discontinued.
Huang Zhouxiong, a partner lawyer at Fujian Jiahe Jialv Law Firm, told Pengpai News that according to the provisions of the Supreme Court’s judicial interpretation, food containing “sildenafil” is directly recognized as “toxic and harmful food.” According to Article 144 of the Criminal Law, adding toxic and harmful non-food materials to food during production and sales, or selling food known to contain toxic and harmful non-food materials, constitutes the crime of producing and selling toxic and harmful food, punishable by imprisonment of up to five years and a fine; for cases causing serious harm to human health or with other serious circumstances, imprisonment of more than five years but less than ten years, and a fine; for cases resulting in death or with other particularly serious circumstances, punishment shall be imposed in accordance with the provisions of Article 141 of this Law.
On March 15th, Chen Mengli provided Pengpai News with the criminal judgment of this case and the reply letter acknowledging the reward for reporting.
According to the judgment of the Qianshan People’s Court, it was found through trial that from October 2021 to May 2022, the defendant Wang Liguo, in collusion with others, used the name of Jiumu Royal Deer Industry Company to commission Zhishutang Deer Product Company to produce health products such as deer penis pills, deer blood pills, and deer pills, and sold them through the company’s self-sales and commissions to Baodong Maibo Trading Co., Ltd. of Qianshan City and Anhui Xu Dazui Cultural Media Co., Ltd. (handled separately) for sale on Douyin.
Wang Liguo knew that sildenafil and tadalfil were drugs prohibited by the state from being added to food. However, in order to enhance the aphrodisiac effect of health products such as deer penis pills, deer blood pills, and deer pills, in batches of 750 bottles on April 29, 2022, and May 3, 2022, 75 bottles on December 10, 2021, 51,100 pills on April 2, 2022, and 290 bottles on May 3, 2022, sildenafil or tadalfil ingredients were added to the products.
Apart from a small quantity that was sold, the rest of the aforementioned products were all seized by the relevant departments. Among them, the bottled deer products had a production cost of 22 yuan per bottle and were sold in the market at 42 yuan per bottle; the granulated products had a cost of 3.5 yuan per pellet and were sold for 8 yuan per pellet in the market; the boxed products had a cost of 180 yuan per box and were sold for 280 yuan per box in the market. According to the cost calculation, the total amount of the aforementioned products produced by Wang Liguo amounted to 230,680 yuan.
The judgment also revealed that the Public Security Bureau of Qianshan City discovered in the investigation of Jiumu Royal Deer Company’s suspected production and sale of toxic and harmful food that since 2018, the company has publicly advertised through online media and other forms, attracting deposits from the public by luring them with high returns on investment in adopting spotted deer. The number of people involved exceeded one hundred, with an amount nearing tens of millions of yuan. On November 27, 2022, the Public Security Bureau of Qianshan City decided to file a case for investigation against Jiumu Royal Deer Company for suspected illegal absorption of public deposits. On December 29, 2022, the Donghu Branch of Nanchang Public Security Bureau transferred the case of illegal absorption of public deposits by Jiumu Royal Deer Company’s Nanchang branch to the jurisdiction of Qianshan City Public Security Bureau.
The Qianshan City Court held that the defendant Wang Liguo violated the prohibitive regulations of the state on food safety management by illegally adding the nationally prohibited substances Sildenafil and Tadalafil to food production and selling them. The circumstances were serious, and his actions constituted the crime of producing and selling toxic and harmful food, for which he should be held criminally responsible. The defendant Wang Liguo violated the laws and regulations of national financial management by illegally absorbing funds from the public, disrupting financial order. Given the significant amount involved and the fact that elderly people were targeted, his actions constituted the crime of illegal absorption of public deposits, for which he should be held criminally responsible and punished accordingly.
Furthermore, the court found Wang Liguo guilty of the crimes of refusing to pay labor remuneration and intentional injury. The court decided to impose a sentence of 9 years and 11 months of imprisonment and a fine of 605,000 yuan, to be executed concurrently.
In addition, according to the “Reply to the Review of the Whistleblower Reward” issued by the Market Supervision Administration of Qianshan City, it was decided to award the whistleblower, Chen Mengli, a reward of 5,000 yuan.