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Kris Wu Sentenced to 13 Years in Beijing Jail for Rape, Fined for $83 million

SHANGHAI — Kris Wu, the Chinese-Canadian singer, actor and former ambassador of Louis Vuitton, Porsche, and Bulgari, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for rape and for organizing promiscuous group activities, Beijing Chaoyang District Court wrote in a statement Friday afternoon.

The 32-year-old Wu will be deported from China after serving his sentence, said the statement.

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The court has found Wu guilty of forcing three women to have sex with him between November and December 2020. The investigation showed that Wu had “taken advantage of the fact that they were drunk and could not resist,” wrote the court statement.

The court also found Wu guilty of “organizing two women and other accomplices for engaging in promiscuous group activities at his home on July 1, 2018,” according to the statement.

Officials from the Canadian Embassy in Beijing attended the court hearing.

Beijing Taxation Bureau followed up with an announcement that said Wu had evaded personal income tax totaling 95 million renminbi, or $13 million, and another underpaid personal income tax of 84 million renminbi, or $11 million, between the years 2019 and 2020.

The bureau also found that Wu had made false declarations via a number of companies in China and abroad to conceal personal income in the same period.

Wu was fined a total of 600 million renminbi, or $84 million, for evading tax. The statement said Wu would avoid criminal charges if paid by an unspecific deadline.

The decision sets a record amount for Chinese A-list star fined for financial misconduct in recent years.

As Beijing has continued its crackdown on the entertainment industry, local celebrities, including Deng Lun, Zheng Shuang, and Zhao Wei, have disappeared from the public eye after alleged personal misconduct and tax evasion charges in the past year.

In early November, China banned all celebrities with “immoral behavior” from endorsing brands and products. The regulation also banned stars from endorsing a wide range of products, including electronic cigarettes, tutoring businesses and health care products.

Wu, a former South Korean boy band member, was formally arrested by police in Beijing on suspicion of rape on July 31, 2021, after Du Meizhu, a 19-year-old college student, publicly accused him of infidelity and preying on underage girls on July 8, 2021.

Wu initially denied the allegations, but Du later shared that his team reached out to her to settle the accusations with money.

The controversy quickly blew up online. The following week, more than 10 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Porsche, and Bulgari, as well as beauty brands Kans and L’Oréal all severed ties with Wu.

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