Fan Bingbing, Chinese Movie Star, Fined $129 Million For Tax Evasion, Goes Missing For Months

Chinese movie star Fan Bingbing has been fined for tax evasion – and has gone missing for months after accusations of possible wrongdoing.

Fan and her related companies were ordered to pay about $129 million in fines and unpaid taxes after authorities found she failed to pay her dues.

Fan, who is China’s highest-paid actress and a star of films like X-Men: Days of Future Past and Iron-Man 3, will not face criminal charges if the fines and back taxes are “paid within the prescribed time limit”, Xinhua news reported.

“I sincerely apologize to everyone,” Fan said in a statement posted on an official social media account. “As a public person, I should be in compliance with the law and be an example for society and the industry. In the face of economic benefits, I should not lose my restraint and forsake administrative procedures that lead to violations of the law.”

“Without the Communist party and the state’s good policies, without the love from the people, there would be no Fan Bingbing,” she wrote in her first statement for months.

Fan’s agent has been detained by the police for further investigation. Her studio has said the star never signed a “yin-yang” contract, a practice where one contract sets out an actor’s real earnings and another details a lower figure with the later submitted to the tax authorities.

The targeting of Fan was seen as a warning from authorities trying to recover back taxes from others in the entertainment industry.

The investigation began over Fan’s reported income from the upcoming film Air Strike starring Bruce Willis. Fan was last seen in public in July and shortly after stopped posting on all social media accounts.

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The actress is one of China’s most influential celebrities and topped Forbes‘s list of Chinese celebrities with an income of around $43 million.