Update | Troubled Chinese firm’s missing wealth manager didn’t flee with investors’ money; he’s ‘just meditating in the Gobi’
Yang Weiguo, of P2P lending platform Wangzhou Fortune, says he was pondering over firm’s direction in the desert, after staff make police report over his disappearance
The chairman of a Chinese e-financing firm suspected of having fled with 1 billion yuan (HK$1.19 billion) of investors’ money has emerged to say he has not absconded but was merely meditating in the Gobi Desert over the firm’s direction.
Yang Weiguo, chairman of peer-to-peer online lending platform Wangzhou Fortune, on Monday said he would be “right back” after staff and clients failed to contact him for several days. Local media reported that he was in Xinjiang.
Yang is at the centre of the latest saga concerning China’s shadow banking and e-finance sector.
Wangzhou Fortune revealed last Thursday that it had lost contact with Yang and reported the matter to Shanghai police.
I decided to clear my mind by travelling for 10 days, cutting all telecommunications contact and being undisturbed ... to think over strategies and rebuild confidence
It said the firm had collected 2.2 billion yuan in all from its investors, and that Yang had taken 1 billion yuan with him. Yang is also chairman of Wangzhou Group, the parent company of Wangzhou Fortune.