Chinese actress Zheng Shuang ordered to pay RM58.3m for breach of contract
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — When it rains, it pours for Chinese actress Zheng Shuang, who has been ordered to compensate an investor a total of 90.5 million yuan (RM58.3 million) for breach of contract.
Global Times reported that Zheng was ordered by the Shanghai Songjiang District People's Court to return service fees totaling 30.5 million yuan (RM19.7 million) along with its interests and pay 60 million yuan in compensation to the investor for a TV series she starred.
The series got canned due to her scandals.
The 32-year-old was fined 299 million yuan (RM192.6 million) for tax evasion in August 2021.
She was also embroiled in a surrogacy scandal earlier that year after her former partner accused her of abandoning their two surrogate babies in the US.
The investor, a film and television investment company from Haining, East China's Zhejiang Province, and Zheng's company had signed a contract in January 13, 2016. It saw the investor paying 30.5 million yuan to Zheng's company for 70 days of work.
On the same day, the investor also invited Zheng to act in a TV series and signed a supplementary contract with Zheng's company in which the investor paid 30.5 million yuan to Zheng between January 18 and April 25, 2016.
In the contract, it was agreed that if the TV series was affected due to the actress's misconduct, the investor reserved the right to rescind the contract, and the actress has to return the payment and compensate the investor for their losses.
When Zheng was fined for tax evasion totaling 299 million yuan in August 2021, the production of the TV series had already been completed.
The investor then filed a lawsuit with the Songjiang court seeking to cancel the contracts and asked Zheng to return all money paid to her.