Xi’an SEG International Shopping Center merchant Yan Peng said in publicly posted material that, four years ago, employees at his store split shopping vouchers issued by the mall into separate sales to improve performance. The material alleges that the practice involved only a small amount of merchandise, was widely known in the mall industry and had long been tolerated, and that neither Yan nor company managers knew about it in advance or instructed employees to do so.
According to the post, the mall subsequently imposed a 11.456 million yuan penalty on the merchant over the matter and withheld and froze the merchant’s payments for an extended period, preventing normal settlement and business operations and leaving cash flow in difficulty. The material says Yan recently expressed suicidal thoughts in posts on WeChat Moments and has since jumped from a building. The claims could not be independently verified.