53 suspects in Ponzi scheme face charges: police
A Shan Lin Financial company office is sealed up by police.
Police officers work with a huge number of collected materials related in the case.
A total of 53 suspects in the high-profile Shan Lin Financial fraud case are facing charges from prosecutors, Shanghai police said on Friday.
The company, registered in Shanghai, illegally raised funds of 73.6 billion yuan (US$10.8 billion) from the public from October 2013 to April this year by promising high returns with fabricated financial products, police said.
Most of the illegally raised funds were allegedly used to pay back money to the first investors and also to pay commissions, rentals, advertising and expenses of the company’s executives.
When Zhou Boyun, the founder and legal representative of the company, turned himself in to police on April 9, the company had 21.3 billion yuan of unpaid deposits and interest payments owed to its investors, police said.
So far, police said they have secured 1.5 billion yuan for investors who suffered losses.
Twelve major executives of the company, including Zhou, could face the criminal charge of illegal fund raising through fraud, while the remaining 41 could be charged with illegal absorption of public deposits, police said.
