Foreign Couple in China Face Charges over Business Practices HONG KONG - The police in Shanghai have announced the arrest of an American woman and her British husband on charges of illegally gathering personal information as part of their business of advising foreign companies on investment risks and fraud in China. The police announcement, issued through Xinhua, the state-run news agency, late on Monday, was the first official Chinese confirmation that the American woman, Yu Yingzeng, and British man, Peter Humphrey, were arrested because of their work for ChinaWhys, an investigation and advisory company that they founded in Shanghai in 2003. Last week, the British Embassy in Beijing said Mr. Humphrey, formerly a reporter for Reuters, had been arrested. A Chinese state television news program showed what it said was footage of Mr. Humphrey confessing, and the Web site of the newspaper Legal Daily said Ms. Yu had admitted to breaking the law. But the couple have been held in secrecy, making it impossible to say whether they spoke under duress. The allegations against the couple are likely to send a chill through the fraud and commercial investigation firms in China that help foreign investors navigate the country's capricious commercial environment. Some multinationals in China have also come under pressure recently as a result of government investigations and allegations of price fixing and using bribery to facilitate business. The Xinhua report said that "the work concerning the case is still developing." Police investigators in Shanghai found that, over the course of a decade, Mr. Humphrey and Ms. Yu had "used compilation, purchasing and other methods to illegally acquire and sell a large amount of citizens" personal information, seeking to make illegal gains," according to the Xinhua report. The information they are accused of gathering includes details about home addresses, family members, overseas travel and property, the Xinhua report said. It called ChinaWhys an "illegal investigation company." Ms. Yu and Mr. Humphrey were formally arrested on Aug. 16, have confessed to the allegations, and have "expressed extreme remorse for their criminal behavior and apologized to the Chinese government," the report said. The two clearly knew that this behavior violated Chinese law. Chinese television news showed what it said was Mr. Humphrey's admission of guilt. "We sometimes in the past used illegal means to acquire personal information," said the man in the video, his face obscured by a digital blot, speaking in fluent Mandarin Chinese. I'm very remorseful about this and wish to apologize to the Chinese government. The formal arrest means that the police will have more time to investigate the couple, and the authorities will then decide whether to indict them. The couple have been detained since July and unable to speak publicly, so the Shanghai police account could not be independently verified. Legal Daily said the couple made payments ranging from 800 renminbi, or about $130, to 2,000 renminbi ($327) for items of illegally obtained information. At least some kinds of the information they are accused of gathering is publicly available. Calls to the ChinaWhys office in Shanghai were not answered. Mr. Humphrey is the managing director of ChinaWhys, and Ms. Yu is general manager. Police investigators studied more than 500 investigation reports that ChinaWhys carried out for clients and found "dozens of reports with serious violations of Chinese citizens" privacy," the Xinhua report said. Those clients included manufacturers, financial institutions and law firms, according to Xinhua. Earlier, an acquaintance of Mr. Humphrey's, who asked not to be identified by name, said Mr. Humphrey appeared to have been arrested in connection with his work for GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical group beset by allegations of using bribery to expand its sales in China. The Xinhua report did not mention GlaxoSmithKline or any other companies. A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Beijing, Justin Higgins, said consular officers had visited Ms. Yu on July 16, soon after she was first detained. "We remain in contact with Ms. Yu and will continue to provide consular assistance," Mr. Higgins said. A spokesman for the British Embassy in Beijing said he had nothing more to say at this stage.