6 held over alleged 60m yuan fraud
Police pictured during a raid on suspects' houses on July 3
Six people alleged to have been involved in a foreign exchange trading fraud and profiting by over 60 million yuan (US$8.7 million) have been arrested, Shanghai police said on Wednesday.
It is claimed they rigged trading on “MetaTrader 4,” an Internet platform.
At least 6,000 people are alleged to have fallen victim to the fraud between September last year and April this year, with a trading volume estimated at around 100 million yuan.
Police in Changning District launched an investigation in May after a woman in her 70s, surnamed Chen, said she lost 150,000 yuan in a month having a 53-year-old woman surnamed He trading with her account at the platform.
He was also a victim, police alleged, who became an agent of the suspects to make up for her losses by charging commission from other investors.
Including Chen and He, they said, almost all investors registered on the platform traded in “demo” mode under which the suspects allegedly rigged trading from their administrator’s account on the same platform.
Police said the suspects closely followed the trading behavior of each investor and switched those seemingly experienced in foreign exchange trading to the “live trading” mode so as to avoid suspicion, but such traders were very few.
The main suspects are a man surnamed Zhu, his wife surnamed Qian, and their family members.
