Opinion | Street protest after Anhui police bust pyramid scheme

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Ponzi scheme participants block a road in Hefei, Anhui, on Saturday. Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

Published: 5:16pm, 29 Apr 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

Hundreds people involved in a pyramid scheme in Anhui blocked a road in Hefei, the provincial capital, to protest against a police crackdown on the scheme's operators, fearing the loss of their investment.

For three hours, some 300 people blocked a road and shouted insults at policemen and urban management officials who arrived to open the road, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

Eventually the authorities persuaded the protesters to disperse peacefully.

The raid by the Hefei police unit tasked with fighting pyramid schemes that sparked the protest happened last Thursday.

It was just the latest of many recent busts of so-called pyramid scheme hideouts that are part of a crackdown by authorities on what seems to be a lucrative business in the city of 10 million people.

The crackdown, which began last June, has busted 619 hideouts and led to the arrest of nearly 2,000 people, the Hefei Daily said on April 25.

A pyramid scheme promises exorbitant profits on money credulent investors put into a central fund. In some schemes, even higher profits are promised and even made if participants can attract other investors. But the fund collapses under the weight of the high returns and its managers disappear.