Pyramid seller handed to Taiwan

A suspect arrested on the Chinese mainland for allegedly instigating Taiwanese people to take part in pyramid selling has been handed back to the island's police, the Ministry of Public Security said Tuesday.According to a ministry statement, Yu Yuan-ying, 49, from Taiwan's Taoyuan County, was arrested on March 20 by mainland police in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with the help of Taiwanese police.Between 2009 and 2011, Yu and others reportedly convinced locals in Taiwan to go to Nanning to join in "capital operations," guaranteeing them huge bonuses. However, these people were seduced to the city for pyramid selling, according to Taiwanese police, as quoted by the ministry in the statement.An arrest warrant was issued on the island in June 2011 for Yu, who was said to be the leader of the pyramid selling ring.During interrogations, Yu admitted to committing the activities, the statement said.The ministry noted some perpetrators in Taiwan used Guangxi's fast development to organize Taiwanese people to tour the region for business inspections. During the tours, they would be brainwashed to join in the pyramid selling schemes and wire money to the organizers as a start-up fund.Hundreds of Taiwanese people had been involved in pyramid selling in Nanning as of August last year, while Taiwanese police also received plenty of tips and reports concerning the issue, said the statement.Police warned people to take precautions against requests to pay funds upfront in the name of chain businesses, capital operations and regional development