An expatriate corporate detective based in Beijing and Shanghai, who worked with GlaxoSmithKline's under-fire Chinese wing, could soon discover the cost of allegedly falling afoul of China's often hazy corporate law.
After more than a year in detention, Briton Peter Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng, a U.S. citizen, stand trial in a Shanghai court Friday, charged with illegally obtaining private information.
Their 19-year-old son, who has returned to Mainland China for the trial, says he's not convinced that, even if the couple is found guilty, they would even have known they were breaking the law.
Humphrey is a veteran corporate detective -- an investigator, similar to a private detective, but one which sniffs out corporate malfeasance -- who spent more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent with Reuters, including stints in Beijing and Eastern Europe.
ChinaWhys, the investigations company that Yu and Humphrey established, mainly catered to foreign companies and multinationals, such as pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), assisting in assessing corporate risks, conducting background checks and investigating allegations of corruption and fraud.
It is a business fraught with risks, especially in a country like China, where even innocuous information is often classified as secret or confidential.
The couple was detained on July 10, 2013 at their Shanghai office, and charged this year with illegally purchasing confidential information -- a serious allegation akin to espionage -- and operating an illegal business. On July 10, Chinese police raided their home in Beijing.
It was not until two days later that their son, Harvey Humphrey, who was undertaking an internship in Hong Kong at that time, managed to establish what befell his parents.
"They were fully aware of the risks that such a business carries," he told CNN. "But usually the risks are very small. The repercussions do not usually take place on the investigators. I guess this time they were definitely caught off guard. I think they were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and with the wrong client possibly as well."
Humphrey believes the case is linked to his father's client, GSK, which is under investigation in China amid allegations raised by a whistleblower.
"I would address the cause of the whole event which is GSK taking them on and not giving them the information they needed to do their investigations," he said. "It's effectively misleading them into a dangerous situation."
In response to CNN's request for comment, GSK referred CNN back to its July 3 statement.
GSK hired Humphrey's firm "in April 2013 to conduct an investigation following a serious breach of privacy and security related to the company's China general manager."
"They were not hired to investigate the substance of the allegations of misconduct made by the whistle-blower."
Chinese authorities have not said that the charges are related to the work Humphrey and Yu did for the pharmaceutical giant. The company has come under scrutiny by Chinese authorities.
On May 14 this year, Chinese police in a report accused GSK executives in China of presiding over a web of corruption and bribery.
"Our China business is now subject to an ongoing investigation by the Chinese authorities with which we are fully cooperating," GSK said in its statement. "We have also hired an external law firm, Ropes and Gray, to conduct an independent review into what happened in our China business during this period."
Last August, Peter Humphrey appeared on Chinese national television handcuffed and wearing orange prison vest to make an unusual "confession."
But his son says the confession may have been made under duress.
"I was quite upset by it as anyone not used to this sort of situation would be," he said. "I didn't understand why it was done, personally. It might have been done because they probably thought it could help to find some leniency. But it was quite humiliating."
The elder Humphrey and his wife could not be reached for comment.
(CNN)
