Jude Shao (born 1963) is an American entrepreneur and the founder of American Energy Products LLC, the Houston-based manufacturer of Sky Blue

butane Butane () or ''n''-butane is an alkane with the formula C4H10. Butane is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Butane is a highly flammable, colorless, easily liquefied gas that quickly vaporizes at room temperature. The name but ...

fuel canisters. After becoming an American citizen in 1997, Shao was imprisoned in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

's Qing Pu Prison on tax fraud charges from 1998 to 2008. Shao alleged that he was imprisoned after refusing to bribe a Chinese official to benefit his business, China Business Ventures.

Biography

The

Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the U ...

quoted Shao as saying “I had set up the company’s policy not to bribe any government officials in China. I am a Stanford MBA. I wasn’t interested in unethical business practice.” Shao graduated from the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

with an MBA in 1993. He then founded China Business Ventures (CBV), a company that exported American medical equipment to China. By 1997, the CBV had offices in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. In 1997, Shao, previously a U.S. permanent resident, became a naturalized U.S. citizen. In spite of his new nationality, Shao was detained in

in April 1998 and held

incommunicado Incommunicado, from the Spanish incomunicado, means "cut off from contact", "impossible to reach". It may also refer to: *''Incommunicado'', an album by Alex Smoke * "Incommunicado" (song), a 1987 single by Marillion * Solitary confinement, one o ...

for 26 months, a violation of the guarantees to consular access provided by the

Vienna Convention on Consular Relations en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Chinese tax auditors had begun investigating the company in 1997, later alleging that he had underpaid import and sales taxes totaling more than $300,000. Shao said that he had paid the taxes and has the accounting records to prove it. Evidence that would have exonerated him, said his friends, was never allowed in court, and Chinese officials stonewalled attempts to appeal. He was convicted in March 2000 and given a 16-year prison sentence. Shao's case received a great deal of attention, partially due to the efforts of some of his fellow business school alumni, who initiated letter-writing campaigns and tried to raise public awareness. He was awarded parole on July 2, 2008, and ordered to serve his parole in Shanghai. Shao returned to the United States in early May 2013 and immediately founded American Energy Products LLC, the manufacturer of Sky Blue Butane fuel canisters, with the help of a group of his

classmates.

External links

Free Jude Shao web siteAmerican Energy Products LLC & Sky Blue Butane web siteHouston Chronicle StoryLatest update on AEP and Jude´s new fight for justice

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shao, Jude 1963 births Living people American people of Chinese descent Stanford University alumni