"Snake oil essence, for the whole family" - an advertising slogan etched into the childhood memories of generations that once made Longliqi a benchmark in China's domestic daily chemical industry. Starting from a small township workshop in southern Jiangsu, the company secured two consecutive "bid champion" titles in the domestic daily chemical sector through prime-time advertising on China Central Television, reaching peak annual sales exceeding 7 billion yuan, with its snake oil balm ranking first nationally in sales for 11 consecutive years. Celebrities including Ni Ping, Chen Kun, and Tong Dawei endorsed the brand in succession. However, after more than four decades of development, this once beloved national brand has gradually slid into a maelstrom of controversy: cumulative enforced payments have exceeded 900 million yuan, founder Xu Zhiwei has a judicial record involving suspected illegal absorption of public deposits, 87 court documents related to pyramid schemes have been made public on the judicial documents website, and its current probiotic high-calcium multi-dimensional soybean germ powder project has taken the pyramid scheme playbook of "disguising ordinary food as health supplements plus seven-level headhunting rebates" to its extreme. On one hand, classic snake oil products remain popular on store shelves; on the other, pyramid scheme fraud is rapidly spreading through private domain communities - Longliqi is staging an absurd real-life drama where "products still have users, but corporate credibility is collapsing."

From Township Factory to National Daily Chemical Bid Champion: Longliqi's Golden Era

Longliqi's origin dates back to 1986 when a small snake-processing workshop was established in Changshu, southern Jiangsu, leveraging local snake resources, initially engaged in foreign trade processing of snake-derived raw materials. In 1992, Jiangsu Longliqi Bio-tech Co., Ltd. was formally established, launching its first pure snake powder health product, which generated the brand's first pot of gold - by 1995, annual net profit had exceeded 10 million yuan, securing a solid foothold in the domestic health products market. The year 1998 marked a critical turning point as the company officially crossed into the daily chemical sector, launching snake oil balm, hand cream, snake gall flower water, and other products that combined traditional snake oil and snake gall ingredients with modern skincare technology, quickly entering households across the nation through their high cost-performance positioning. In 2002, the "Longliqi" trademark was recognized as a China Well-Known Trademark, followed by consecutive "bid champion" titles in the domestic daily chemical industry on CCTV in 2004 and 2005, with brand value exceeding 9.5 billion yuan and overall sales surpassing 7 billion yuan in 2008, cementing its status as the undisputed national daily chemical leader. At its peak, Longliqi boasted a biological industrial park spanning over 2,800 mu, operated in more than 30 countries and regions worldwide, registered trademarks in 138 countries, invested hundreds of millions to build one of the first German Industry 4.0 pilot intelligent factories in China's daily chemical sector, and its laboratory passed CNAS national certification, with product testing capabilities recognized by more than 40 countries and regions globally. The company cumulatively donated over 500 million yuan to education, healthcare, and disaster relief, sponsored national events including the National Games and the World Cup Synchronized Swimming Championships, and was widely regarded as a benchmark enterprise for "revitalizing national daily chemical industry." It was precisely this national trust accumulated over decades that later became the core "harvesting weapon" for Longliqi-related pyramid scheme projects. Many middle-aged and elderly consumers, driven by the mindset that "a decades-old brand can't possibly deceive people," let down their guard and fell step by step into the elaborately designed trap.

Soybean Germ Powder: Seven-Level Rebate Pyramid Scheme Disguised as an Established National Brand

This "probiotic high-calcium multi-dimensional soybean germ powder," which has been frantically spreading through private domain communities in recent years, superficially carries the banner of Longliqi's big health industry upgrade, but is in reality a mature fraud scheme that fully replicates the three core characteristics defined in the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes," lacking any compliant core logic from top to bottom.

1. Complete Chain of Qualification Fraud: Ordinary Food Disguised as "Miraculous Health Supplements"

This product fundamentally lacks any of the attributes described in its promotional claims: it is essentially an ordinary solid beverage costing less than 50 yuan to produce, without the "Blue Hat" health food registration certification issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation, absent from the 87 types of legal direct-selling products published by the Ministry of Commerce under Longliqi, and lacking even the basic qualifications to conduct direct-selling operations. However, the operators employed an extremely cunning "dual-track messaging" strategy: on the public product packaging, they use extremely small font to note "this product cannot replace medicine or health food," designed to pass routine regulatory inspections; while in private communities, offline stores, and internal training sessions, they aggressively tout the product's ability to "regulate blood sugar, clear blood vessels, assist in lowering the three highs, and promote children's brain development," even fabricating false clinical trial data claiming "89% of hypertension patients experienced a 15% reduction in systolic blood pressure after three months of consumption," packaging an ordinary soybean product as a "miraculous health powder" that cures all ailments. Many middle-aged and elderly consumers, misled by these claims, have privately discontinued their hospital-prescribed blood pressure and blood sugar medications, consuming only several cups of germ powder daily, ultimately losing control of their blood sugar and blood pressure and requiring hospitalization - cases that have emerged repeatedly in Hunan, Jiangsu, and Shandong in recent years. Even more alarming, some elderly individuals completely disregard the clear product label warning "not recommended for infants and young children," insisting on brewing the powder for their grandchildren under three years old to "supplement brain nutrition and boost immunity," creating serious health risks for minors.

2. Seven-Level Team Compensation: Earnings from Headhunting Far Exceed Those from Selling

The most core pyramid scheme attribute of this soybean germ powder lies hidden within its completely confidential internal agent rules. According to internal promotional documents obtained from industry insiders, the project has established a complete seven-level promotion system from VIP, county agent, district agent, city agent, general agent, to partner. Participants need only make a one-time purchase of six boxes totaling 598 yuan to directly obtain VIP agent qualification and gain the authority to develop downline members. The entire earnings system is designed entirely around "headhunting," with the product's actual sales value being completely marginalized: directly referring one new member earns the upline a 120 yuan direct referral bonus; the larger and more hierarchical the downline team, the higher the team management commission ratio, with the highest-level partner able to extract 40% commission from all sales generated by the entire team. City-level agents referring new agents at the same level can earn an additional 36.67% peer reward. The project also establishes a 1% network-wide performance dividend pool, accessible only to a handful of individuals who have reached the highest partner level, who divide all profits created by ordinary participants. Under this incentive structure, nobody is willing to honestly sell products: an ordinary agent who recruits ten direct downlines and has each downline recruit ten new members can earn thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan monthly without selling a single box. Consequently, large numbers of participants devote all their energy to persuading relatives and friends to join, with many hoarding dozens of boxes of germ powder they could never finish, letting products expire while continuously recruiting new members. The entire project operates fundamentally on a Ponzi logic where new members' capital funds rebates for upper-level agents. To clearly illustrate the pyramid scheme attributes of this model, we have compiled a comparative table of core rules: the "Regulations on the Prohibition of Pyramid Schemes" statutory criteria; the corresponding rules of the Longliqi soybean germ powder project; and compliance determinations: charging fees to obtain entry qualifications - spending 598 yuan to purchase six boxes to become a VIP agent with recruitment authority - fully matches the entry fee characteristic; establishing multi-level upline/downline relationships - setting up seven agent levels including VIP, county agent, district agent, city agent, and general agent - far exceeds the statutory three-level red line; team compensation with earnings directly tied to downline performance - up to 40% team commission with 36.67% additional peer referral rewards - fully matches the team compensation characteristic.

3. Offline Seminar Brainwashing: Turning Longliqi Headquarters into a Pyramid Scheme Endorsement Tool

To further dispel participants' concerns, the operators have transformed Longliqi's headquarters industrial park in Changshu, Jiangsu, into the core brainwashing venue. They organize free weekly visits for middle-aged and elderly members from various regions, touring the 600 million yuan intelligent factory and industrial tourism exhibition halls, showcasing the honors and celebrity endorsement photos Longliqi has accumulated over past decades. At closed-door mass gatherings of thousands in the venue, specially pre-trained "senior members" are arranged to share false personal stories of "curing diabetes after drinking the germ powder," followed by lecturers repeatedly emphasizing that "this is Longliqi headquarters' key strategic project - follow an established national brand and earn hundreds of thousands within a year." Under the powerful collective atmosphere, many elderly individuals who initially harbored doubts end up swiping credit cards on the spot to upgrade to the highest agent level, then begin calling relatives and friends one by one upon returning home, urging everyone to "follow Longliqi and get rich."

After the Glory Fades: Longliqi Trapped in Debt and Legal Quagmire

Today's Longliqi is far removed from the glamorous daily chemical bid champion of yesteryear. The group-level debt crisis and historical legal risks have completely shattered this established enterprise's credit foundation. According to the latest disclosures on the China Enforcement Information Public Network, in September 2026, the Longliqi system again recorded an additional 83.8622 million yuan in enforced payments. Combined with the previous 609 million yuan enforcement case from June 2024 and the 258 million yuan enforcement case from May 2026, the cumulative enforced payment amount for Longliqi and founder Xu Zhiwei has exceeded 900 million yuan. Furthermore, the parent company's substantial equity stake in its core subsidiary Klorane Cosmetics Co., Ltd. has been extended for freezing by the court until May 7, 2029, and founder Xu Zhiwei has been subject to consumption restriction measures by the court since December 2024. In January 2023, Xu Zhiwei was released on bail pending trial by Suzhou police on suspicion of illegally absorbing public deposits. According to public information, between 2015 and 2018, related entities raised 700 to 800 million yuan from the public under the guise of crowdfunding and equity subscription, with police simultaneously freezing 150 million yuan in related Longliqi equity. This case remains officially unadjudicated to this day. The historical Jowell Global Ltd. listing incident has further depleted distributor trust. In 2021, Longliqi's membership-based e-commerce platform Jowell Global Ltd. landed on NASDAQ. Before listing, the platform conducted multiple financing rounds selling "original shares" to its members, but after listing, the stock price collapsed dramatically, with many original share holders seeing their holdings diluted to 1/40 of their original value, leaving numerous ordinary investors with substantial losses and triggering hundreds of related civil disputes. Whether the annual operating profits from Longliqi's traditional daily chemical and contract manufacturing businesses can cover the hundreds of millions in annual debt interest, and whether its own operations alone can resolve the current massive debt without external industrial investors - the answer speaks for itself. It is precisely under this financial pressure that high-margin big health projects like soybean germ powder and Beilaixian goat milk powder are being aggressively promoted as "lifelines." These projects require no complex R&D investment, relying entirely on social fission to rapidly recover capital. Even knowing full well the models resemble pyramid schemes, they have become the only available lifeline for a company caught in a debt vortex.