BEIJING, January 4, 2022 (TMTPOST) — Chinese actors Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang have been banned on a number of social media platforms due to allegations of running a pyramid scheme with their company TST Tin’s Secret.

Assets worth 600 million yuan (US$94 million) of the married couple’s cosmetics and skincare company TST Tin’s Secret have been frozen due to an investigation, the market regulator in North China’s Shijiazhuang city announced on December 29, 2021.

Zhang Ting, the owner of TST Tin’s Secret, was later banned from posting new content on Douyin on January 2, 2022. Douyin is a popular short video sharing platform in China, also known as TikTok’s Chinese sister app,

The ban would last till January 16, Douyin said.

In addition, Chinese social media Weibo has also banned Zhang Ting, Lin Ruiyang and TST Tin’s Secret from posting anything on its platform, citing violations of relevant laws and regulations.

Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang’s most recent posts on Weibo were reposts of TST Tin’s Secret’s statement, in which the company claims that the company runs a legal business and has been complying with relevant laws and regulations and paying taxes accordingly since its founding.

Several insiders who have first-hand experience with Zhang and Lin’s alleged pyramid scheme have spoken out against TST Tin’s Secret. Sun Qi, who was using a pseudonym for privacy reasons, told the Beijing News that new members of the multi-level marketing scheme at TST Tin’s Secret are required to purchase 2,500 yuan worth of products before becoming entitled to receiving a bonus from enrolling new members. Members are told to develop their subordinates to make money and encouraged to increase their product stock from purchasing from TST Tin’s Secret, Sun said, who claimed that people she knows and herself did not make any money from the company’s scheme.