Chinese father and son healers from ’’Guangzhou’’ punished

Three and a half years ago, on April 23, 2022, a criminal case was initiated against officials and employees of ’’Guangzhou Medical of China’’ LLC. Within this case, a court verdict was delivered against Chinese citizens X.K. and his son X.F., who had worked as doctors in the “Guangzhou” clinic. QALAMPIR.UZ reviewed the court documents.

According to the verdict, between December 7, 2020, and April 11, 2022, X.K. and X.F., who worked at the ’’Guangzhou’’ clinic located in Tashkent’s Bektemir district, diagnosed patients without using medical methods, claiming that acupuncture procedures and special medicines would cure their illnesses. However, they deceived patients by administering substandard medicines and misappropriated the money obtained from victims, dividing it among themselves for personal use. In this way, X.K. and X.F. defrauded 100 individuals.

On October 20, 2024, a detention order in absentia was issued against 61-year-old X.K. and his 31-year-old son X.F., and they were declared wanted. X.K. was arrested in Kazakhstan on December 19, 2024, and extradited to Uzbekistan. His son was also detained in Kazakhstan on November 27, 2024, and later extradited to Uzbekistan.

On August 29 of this year, the Bektemir District Criminal Court reviewed the case. During the trial, one of the victims, G.Kh., testified that since 2018 she had been suffering from severe back pain caused by a spinal hernia, as well as persistent coughing. She explained that after consulting multiple doctors without success, she saw an advertisement on television about the ’’Guangzhou’’ Chinese clinic, which was said to specialize in treating various illnesses through traditional Chinese medicine. She went to the clinic and paid 50,000 soums for the initial examination.

According to G.Kh., a middle-aged Chinese man at the clinic felt her pulse and measured her blood pressure. He assured her that her illness could be cured and quoted the cost of a 10-day treatment course at 2.8 million soums, but said he could reduce it to 2.5 million soums. After paying 1 million soums in advance, she began receiving acupuncture sessions. The next day, she paid the remaining 1.5 million soums and was given a 10-day supply of medicines. G.Kh. underwent acupuncture for three days and took the prescribed medicine as instructed, but noticed no positive changes in her condition. In particular, her back pain did not subside. In court, G.Kh. testified that she never returned to the clinic again, as she received no healing at all. On the contrary, she stated that she had been deceived and her money was taken. She requested the court to recover 2.55 million soums from the defendants as compensation for the material damage caused.

In total, 100 patients were deceived in this way at the clinic, each paying different sums “for treatment.”

During the trial, defendant H.K. admitted his guilt. He testified that in November 2020, together with his son H.F., he started working at the ’’Guangzhou Medical of China’’ clinic, which had been organized by their acquaintances L.J.Ch. and J.D.. In addition to H.K. and his son, four other Chinese citizens and several Uzbek nationals also worked there. H.K. stated that he rented an apartment near the clinic, where he lived with his son, and received a monthly salary of $1,300. However, he later left the clinic because J.D. failed to pay his salary on time. Around March–April 2022, he returned to China with his son.

The defendant admitted that during his time at the clinic, he recommended and provided patients with herbal medicines of Chinese traditional medicine, but said he had not personally dealt with all the victims. He also claimed that the material damage in the case had already been compensated, that he had never given patients any toxic or chemical drugs, and asked the court to consider his foreign citizenship, age, and personal circumstances by sentencing him to a lighter punishment not related to imprisonment, so that he could return to his homeland.

According to the court verdict, H.K. and H.F. were found guilty under Article 168 (fraud), part 3, paragraph ’’b’’, and Article 186-3 (manufacturing, storing, transporting, or selling substandard or counterfeit medicines or medical products with the intent of distribution, as well as selling medicines outside pharmacies or violating rules on retail sales of prescription drugs containing potent substances), part 2, paragraphs ’’b’’ and ’’v’’ of the Criminal Code. Applying Article 57 of the Criminal Code, the court imposed a fine of 123 BHM (33 million 210 thousand soums) on H.K. and 112 BHM (30 million 240 thousand soums) on H.F. The fines are to be collected in favor of the state.

The court canceled the pre-trial detention measure applied to H.K. and H.F. Instead, a pledge of good behavior was imposed until the verdict entered into legal force, and both were immediately released from custody in the courtroom.

It was ordered that the material damage of 381 million 402 thousand soums caused to the victims be compensated through funds held in the deposit account of the Tashkent City Department of Internal Affairs, 300 million soums paid earlier by J.D. during the preliminary investigation, and 107 million soums seized during a search at ’’Guangzhou Medical of China’’ LLC.

It was further revealed that part of the criminal case has been separated into a different proceeding, and suspects in that case have been declared wanted.