https://www.scmp.com/rss/322117/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Chinese microblogging platform Weibo has banned at least 52 influential user accounts, some with millions of followers, in response to Beijing’s latest campaign to clean up “misinterpretations” of financial and economic policies on the country’s social media. The largest account that Weibo shut down was the popular Stock Community, with 3.25 million followers, which published stock market information. Michael Chen, a verified personal blog that provided investment tips to 1.3 million followers... https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3147334/weibo-bans-52-accounts-some-millions-followers-campaign-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3147334/weibo-bans-52-accounts-some-millions-followers-campaign-against?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:00:24 +0000 Zhang Xiaolei, a prominent figure in China’s fintech sector, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in a Ponzi scheme that involved at least 50 billion yuan (US$7.25 billion) of investors’ money. The Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangsu province handed down the punishment to Zhang, 50, after charging him with financial fraud and embezzling depositors’ money through illegal fundraising, and confiscated 100 million yuan of his assets, Xinhua reported on Friday. Zhang,... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3015537/zhang-xiaolei-founder-chinese-fintech-firm-qbao-serve-15-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/3015537/zhang-xiaolei-founder-chinese-fintech-firm-qbao-serve-15-year?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jun 2019 09:37:45 +0000 Chinese authorities say they have exposed a Ponzi scheme that lured 60 billion yuan from retail investors, in what would be the latest success for the country’s risk prevention campaign. Eight ringleaders of the Shanghai-based Shanlin Finance have been charged with illegally obtaining deposits and taken into custody, according to local public prosecutor the Shanghai Pudong district People’s Procuratorate, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. The scheme was disguised as a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2143299/eight-charged-china-over-ponzi-scheme-posing-p2p-lender-took-us9?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2143299/eight-charged-china-over-ponzi-scheme-posing-p2p-lender-took-us9?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Apr 2018 09:25:27 +0000 Eleven investors have been detained in eastern China after protests erupted over the collapse of the country’s latest Ponzi scheme, dubbed “money treasure online”. Police in Nanjing said they detained the investors and warned another 11 for organising illegal gatherings and disturbing public order, the city’s Public Security Bureau said in a statement posted to its social media account. The Ponzi scheme – called Qbao.com – took in billions of yuan from millions of investors with the authorities... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2130561/eleven-investors-held-after-chinese-ponzi-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2130561/eleven-investors-held-after-chinese-ponzi-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jan 2018 08:30:45 +0000 Hundreds of desperate small investors have massed in freezing conditions in eastern China this week to protest over the collapse of a multibillion-dollar online finance service, after authorities did an about-turn and declared the one-time state media darling a Ponzi scheme. Videos posted online showed the investors demonstrating outside provincial government offices in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Monday demanding action over failed funding platform Qbao.com, which has been accused of... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2130396/banquets-lies-and-protests-collapse-qbao-another-popular-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2130396/banquets-lies-and-protests-collapse-qbao-another-popular-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jan 2018 10:02:18 +0000 A Chinese court has sentenced two people to life imprisonment for fraud in a 15.6 billion-yuan (US$2.39 billion) pyramid scheme that sucked in more than 200,000 people. The key figures in the scheme, Huang Dingfang and Cai Keyi, were convicted on Monday at the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, according to a statement on the court’s website. Some 19 others who were involved were given sentences of up to 12 years, the court in the eastern Chinese city said. Huang set up Longyan e-commerce Co... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2127560/chinese-men-jailed-life-after-their-us24-billion-pyramid-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2127560/chinese-men-jailed-life-after-their-us24-billion-pyramid-scheme?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00:14 +0000 Police in northeastern China have seized 200 million yuan (US$30.2 million) in cash from an unemployed woman’s flat in a crackdown on a pyramid scheme, according to local media reports. Details of the case were published after a video of the money in the woman’s flat went viral on social media, Liaoshen Evening Post reported. A total of 24 suspects were detained by police across China on December 3, including the woman who lived in the flat, identified only by her surname Zhu, and the alleged... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2124890/chinese-police-find-us30m-unemployed-womans-flat-during-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2124890/chinese-police-find-us30m-unemployed-womans-flat-during-crackdown?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Dec 2017 04:31:06 +0000 The swollen body of 23-year-old Li Wenxing, a casualty of China’s widespread, illegal pyramid sales schemes, was found in a pond on the outskirts of Tianjin on July 14, two months after he arrived in the city. He’d been desperate for a decent job after graduating from a university in northeastern China last summer, and had left Beijing, where he’d been living in a rented room, by high-speed train on May 20 to start work as a software engineer. Chinese police arrest 230 people following probe... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2108031/perils-pyramid-schemes-dark-corner-chinas-economic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2108031/perils-pyramid-schemes-dark-corner-chinas-economic?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Sep 2017 03:45:00 +0000 Economic history tells us that one of the factors that can undermine confidence, or even precipitate a financial crash, is exposure to massive fraud that sucks in hundreds of thousands of investors and ordinary folk alike. Typically it can wreak most devastation if it prompts anxiety about an asset bubble, such as in property. Just a hint of scandal or impropriety can be enough to trigger a collapse and threaten economic and social stability. Hence China’s deep concern about Ponzi schemes, with... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2111754/beijing-must-stamp-out-ponzi-schemes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2111754/beijing-must-stamp-out-ponzi-schemes?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Sep 2017 16:44:13 +0000 China’s latest crackdown on pyramid schemes was prompted by three shocking deaths – one young man who was beaten, another found dead in a pond and a third left to die on a road. Like elsewhere in the world, the scams have proliferated in China as fraudsters trick people into thinking they can become rich quickly. Members are charged a joining fee and required to recruit new investors with promises of high returns. But the three deaths in July put a spotlight on more extreme tactics used by some... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2111335/deaths-sparked-chinas-crackdown-illegal-pyramid-schemes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2111335/deaths-sparked-chinas-crackdown-illegal-pyramid-schemes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Sep 2017 05:57:12 +0000 The ringleader of China’s biggest Ponzi scheme was sentenced to life in prison by a Beijing court on Tuesday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Ding Ning, dubbed by the media as China’s Bernie Madoff after the Wall Street con man, was convicted of fraudulent fundraising, smuggling precious metals, illegally possessing guns and crossing national borders, the report said. Ding, 35, was the head of Ezubao, a peer-to-peer online financing firm. He fleeced more than 50 billion yuan (US$7.7... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2110836/chinas-bernie-madoff-jailed-life-huge-fundraising-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2110836/chinas-bernie-madoff-jailed-life-huge-fundraising-fraud?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Sep 2017 10:03:00 +0000 Police in southern China have arrested 230 members of a suspected pyramid scheme, a week after a rare demonstration in Beijing protesting against a crackdown on the group. The scheme, known as Shanxinhui or “philanthropic exchange”, is under investigation and the group’s founder Zhang Tianming, along with several employees, was arrested earlier this month. But in an unusual display of public disobedience, hundreds of protesters affiliated with the scheme gathered in the capital Beijing last... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2104781/chinese-police-arrest-230-people-following-probe-alleged-pyramid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2104781/chinese-police-arrest-230-people-following-probe-alleged-pyramid?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Jul 2017 08:45:15 +0000 Beijing police have detained 67 members of a pyramid fund scheme for disturbing social order after thousands of investors staged a rare protest in the Chinese capital earlier this week. They staged the demonstration on Monday over the government’s decision to call the scheme illegal and arrest its ringleader, Zhang Tianming. State media reported that Shanxinhui, which means Kindness Exchange, has at least five million members and claims to help with poverty reduction. Police quickly dispersed... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2104294/sixty-seven-held-after-big-pyramid-scheme-protest-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2104294/sixty-seven-held-after-big-pyramid-scheme-protest-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Jul 2017 04:06:18 +0000 The financial naivety of the public and a collective desire for unfeasibly high returns have helped fuel the proliferation of fraudulent investment schemes in China, according to an academic. “China’s financial markets were opened in the 1990s and the pace at which they have developed has brought many risks,” said Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of the school of finance at Renmin University of China. China declares war on get-rich schemes, citing risk of social unrest “People are eager to achieve high... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/2104062/chinese-ponzi-schemes-feed-publics-lack-financial-knowledge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/money-wealth/article/2104062/chinese-ponzi-schemes-feed-publics-lack-financial-knowledge?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Jul 2017 11:14:11 +0000 Mainland Chinese investors were the biggest losers when dozens of Hong Kong’s penny stocks plunged last week, some losing as much as 90 per cent of their value. The crash was serious enough that it made it on to the agenda for discussion between the China Securities Regulatory Commission and Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission. Three theories stand out to explain the crash. First a little premble: 90 per cent of these penny stocks belong to an Enigma Network of 50 interconnected issues,... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2101223/here-are-three-theories-explaining-hong-kongs-penny-stock-crash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2101223/here-are-three-theories-explaining-hong-kongs-penny-stock-crash?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jul 2017 08:37:16 +0000 Shanghai police have raided a suspected Ponzi scheme operation thought to have raised more than 30 billion yuan (HK$35.9 billion), in the latest sign of cracks in the mainland’s lending system. More than 20 people were taken into custody for further questioning, local police said. The authorities said they found clues of illegal activity including unauthorised acceptance of public deposits and fraud. Xu Qin, owner of Shanghai-based Zhongjin Capital Management, was apprehended at an airport as he... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1934570/police-raid-shanghai-ponzi-scheme-suspected-raising?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1934570/police-raid-shanghai-ponzi-scheme-suspected-raising?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:00:00 +0000