Everything in China is fake, even the people in the cinemas

The amount of fakery, and often outright fraud, in China is truly mindblowing.

The BBC is out with a story on Chinese cinemas and how faking attendance and box office receipts is a cottage industry.

"When you have a hit film, your stock price will go up several times in terms of market valuation compared with the grosses from the box office so some 'financial genius', came up with this idea: Why don't I have fake box office numbers so that I can make much more money from the stock market?" said Chinese film critic and industry observer Raymond Zhou.

This has sparked a cat-and-mouse game with regulators and investors of how to spot fake purchases.

Being China, it also goes way beyond that with schemes to pay movie stars $2 million but invoicing it at $10 million and moving the rest out of the country.

Source link