Court sends fundraising fraudsters to jail
Two main culprits were sentenced to 15 years and life in jail over a fundraising fraud involving nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion), a city court announced on Tuesday.
Fines of 5 million yuan and 50 million yuan were also imposed, Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said.
Four accomplices were jailed from four to eight years, with fines between 200,000 yuan and 400,000 yuan.
The gang had illegally raised funds through so-called online investment platforms Yonglibao and Huolicai between 2013 and 2018. They gave fake guarantees, exaggerated profitability and promised annual interest rates from fake investment projects of between 6 and 12 percent.
Over 28,000 people suffered losses of 1.3 billion yuan.
In July 2018, Yonglibao’s Weibo account and mobile app sent a notice asking investors to call the police because the two controllers of the platform had disappeared.
A month later, three suspects, including the two controllers, were arrested after being brought back to Shanghai from overseas. Another three were caught by police in September.