Drug mule suspect Bella Culley was paid to pose as a company director so Chinese retailers could bypass an Amazon ban on trading in the UK, it was claimed last night.
Culley, 18, is said to have received £550 in return for her passport information, which was then used to open a business account on the digital marketplace.
She is listed at Companies House as a director of Lujamen Ltd, a firm linked to Jiamin Lu, a 30-year-old businessman based in Guangdong, China, who sells second-hand electrical items online.
Culley, from Billingham, Teesside, is now being held in Tbilisi, Georgia, after allegedly being caught with £200,000 of drugs at its airport last Sunday.
The Mail on Sunday spoke to another UK national linked to Jiamin Lu who said he signed to be a director with Culley.
‘This is a “refer a friend” thing online,’ he said. ‘I signed up for a bit of extra money and when I got paid they said you can sign up a few friends if you want.
‘I put a post up and she [Culley] did as well. It’s a nominee director programme, it allows a customer to trade in the UK. I’ve just referred a few friends – but it has nothing to do with drug smuggling.’
In social media posts before she was arrested, Culley referred to herself as part of Bonnie and Clyde and shared images of her self with wads of bank notes.
Bella Culley, 18, was reportedly paid to pose as a company director so Chinese retailers could bypass an Amazon ban on trading in the UK, it was claimed last night
Culley is currently being held in Tbilisi, Georgia, after allegedly being caught with £200,000 of drugs at its airport last Sunday
She is listed at Companies House as a director of Lujamen Ltd, a firm linked to Jiamin Lu, a 30-year-old businessman based in Guangdong, China , who sells second-hand electrical items online
She was stopped in Tbilisi in a suspected sting where officers allegedly found 12kg of cannabis and 2kg of hashish in her luggage.
She had been travelling in the Philippines and Thailand before flying to Georgia from Bangkok via the United Arab Emirates.
In a Tbilisi court last week, she claimed she was pregnant. She is said to have told legal sources that she was in love with a mystery man who now forms a central part of the police investigation.
Lujamen Ltd was incorporated last September and Culley listed as a director the same month. It has a page on Amazon selling second-hand electrical goods.
Another who signed up after seeing the £550 advert was stunned when The Mail on Sunday told them they were linked to Culley at Companies House.
They said: ‘We did this Amazon thing. There were a few people going round saying, “We’ll give you 550 quid”. You open an Amazon business account and someone in China buys your account.
‘There were a couple of people in Darlington behind it. You were just giving your passport details so they can open an account. They sell it on to someone in China and once it’s moved into their name, that’s meant to be the end of it.
‘It’s because Jeff Bezos fell out with China and closed all their Amazon selling accounts, so they can’t open them themselves but can acquire them. It’s £550 cash-in-hand, everyone’s laughing.’
Culley’s first appearance at Tbilisi court last Tuesday was broadcast locally and word reached her family the next day.
Her father Niel, 49, who had gone to Thailand to search for her, then flew to Georgia with her aunt Kerrie, 51. The pair have so far been blocked from visiting her.
