Woman Sentenced to Prison for Extorting Popular Bubble Tea Chain 10 Times

Woman Sentenced to Prison for Extorting a Popular Bubble Tea Chain 10 Times

The Case of the Bubble Tea Extortionist

The Beginning of the Fraud

Between November and December 2021, eight stores of a well-known bubble tea chain in the same area received a string of compensation calls, all claiming foreign objects in the products and demanding ten times the price as compensation.

In the first complaint, a woman identifying herself as Ms. Zhang reported hair in her takeout bubble tea and demanded tenfold compensation. In the recorded call, she said: "I've made the maximum concession — I'm not making trouble for you or bringing negative publicity. Once I speak up, it will definitely spread from one person to ten, and then to more."

At first the store offered to simply waive the payment, but Ms. Zhang stood firm: "I know the law too — that's why I'm citing the Food Safety Law with you. Right now I'm making demands on you, not the other way around."

She insisted her claim was grounded in the Food Safety Law's provisions: "For food that fails to meet food safety standards, in addition to compensation for losses, consumers may demand that producers or sellers pay compensation equal to ten times the price."

To protect the brand's image, the store readily agreed — waiving the bill and paying the tenfold compensation.

The Discovery

After that, multiple stores in the same area received similar calls about foreign objects and compensation over the following month or more. Each store manager reported the incidents in the regional group chat. With such issues recurring so frequently, the bubble tea brand's loss prevention department took notice and investigated the complaints.

The investigation revealed that all the calls came from the same person — and that of 10 compensation claims, the same photo had been used 6 times. Total compensation paid exceeded 15,000 yuan. The matter was reported to the police.

The Arrest and Confession

Then, as the suspect lodged her 11th complaint, police tracked down Ms. Zhang at an accounting firm and arrested her on extortion charges. When officers knocked, she seemed genuinely bewildered.

According to her confession, the first claim was real — there was hair in the bubble tea. But once she discovered how easily compensation could be obtained, she decided to pursue this "path to fortune" after successfully "claiming" the first and second times. She hadn't realized her "path to fortune" already constituted extortion, and said she knew she was wrong...

The police put it bluntly: "It's impossible that she ordered eleven times and found hair in her drink every single time." Knowing she was wrong couldn't spare her the extortion charge, so she was placed under criminal detention.

The Trial and Verdict

The case recently went to its latest hearing. According to People's Daily Online, the Beijing Fengtai District People's Procuratorate held a video trial. Because the defendant voluntarily pleaded guilty and accepted punishment after her arrest, compensated the victim company for its losses, and obtained its forgiveness, the court sentenced Ms. Zhang for extortion to one year and three months of fixed-term imprisonment, with a one-year-and-six-month probation, plus a fine of 5,000 yuan.

The prosecutor commented: "Under China's regulations on extortion, the criminal threshold is 3,000 yuan. In this case the amount involved exceeded 15,000 yuan. Moreover, the extortion happened ten times in just over a month — clearly frequent. That said, we took into account that Ms. Zhang compensated the bubble tea shop afterward and obtained the stores' forgiveness."

In the trial video, Ms. Zhang faced the accusations in tears, pleading with the judge and prosecutor to consider her young age and give her a chance, saying she fully recognized her mistake.

The prosecutor noted that Ms. Zhang had held a legitimate job at the time and was punished by law out of a moment of greed — a caution to anyone hoping to profit through illegal means.

So young, and left with a criminal record that can never be erased over a moment of greed. Not worth it — really not worth it.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

On a much sweeter note — here are FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level specialty beans for enjoying coffee the honest way:

FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe Guodingding (Ethiopia) — The first stop for many on the specialty coffee journey: jasmine florals, lemon and berry brightness, and a gentle green-tea sweetness. Easy to brew, impossible not to like.

FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Sun-Dried Huakui (Sidama) — Traditional natural process with berry, floral, jackfruit, melon, and honey notes. Intensely fruity and sweet — the bean that converts "I don't like coffee" drinkers.

FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete Washed Geisha — An affordable gateway to Geisha from Panama's most representative specialty region. Washed for clarity, it pours out orange-blossom honeyed sweetness and citrus-berry brightness — like a flower tea with no bitterness at all.