【英语财经】e租宝爆76亿美元庞氏骗局 Arrests in China over $7.6bn Ponzi scheme

Chinese police have arrested more than 20 people associated with “a complete Ponzi scheme” that took in more than Rmb50bn ($7.6bn) from investors, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

It is the biggest scam yet to emerge from China’s unruly and largely unregulated peer-to-peer lending sector, part of the country’s shadow banking sector. Police had to use two excavators to uncover some 1,200 account books that had been buried deep below ground, according to Xinhua.

Established in 2014, Ezubao was one of China’s highest-profile P2P lending sites, promising investors annual returns of up to 15 per cent. Ding Ning, its 34-year-old founder, allegedly ploughed new investors’ capital into its own real estate projects and also used it to pay off existing investors.

P2P lenders, which grew out of investor hunger for wealth management products, are supposed to invest the money they raise into financial products issued by third parties such as property developers. According to industry estimates, as many as a third of China’s 3,800 registered P2P lenders have run into financial difficulties as economic growth slows.

Such products offer much higher returns than bank deposits. They are often marketed, but not guaranteed, by state banks, leading to disputes between investors and the banks when end-users default.

At its annual Central Economic Work Conference last month, the ruling Chinese Communist party identified “excesses” in online lending as a threat to financial system stability.

According to Xinhua, Ezubao raised more than Rmb50bn from almost 1m investors, some of whom travelled to Beijing to protest outside government offices as the company began to founder. In December at least four provincial police bureaux announced they had frozen Ezubao assets.

Mr Ding, who is under arrest, could not be reached for comment. The P2P lender’s risk controller, who is also under detention, was quoted by Xinhua as admitting that “95 per cent of [our] projects are fake”.

“It was known for a long time that Ezubao was heading for trouble because it was so aggressive,” said Joe Zhang, a veteran P2P business owner and executive.

“The majority of P2P firms are trying to do the right thing,” added Mr Zhang, who has entrusted his own savings to P2P lenders. “Whether they have a good business model is another matter.”

According to Xinhua, Mr Ding spent some of his firm’s capital on lavish “gifts” including a Rmb180m villa in Singapore and a pink diamond worth Rmb12m, while his younger brother was paid more than Rmb1m a month as a salaried executive.

Last month Chinese police also reportedly arrested the founder of the Fanya Metal Exchange, a trading platform based in the southwestern city of Kunming that reportedly raised Rmb40bn from investors.

Fanya’s cheated investors had previously travelled to Shanghai in pursuit of the exchange’s founder, Shan Jiuliang, and protested outside government offices in Beijing.

据中国官方新华社(Xinhua)的报道，中国警方逮捕了与“彻头彻尾的庞氏骗局”e租宝(Ezubao)一案有关的20多人。这一骗局从投资者手中骗取了逾500亿元人民币（合76亿美元）。

对于中国不守规矩而又非常缺乏监管的P2P借贷产业来说，这是该领域迄今出现的最大丑闻。中国的P2P借贷产业是中国影子银行部门的一部分。在该案中，警方曾不得不动用两台挖掘机，挖出了深埋在地下的大约1200个账本。

e租宝成立于2014年，是中国最受关注的P2P借贷网站之一，承诺给投资者的年化收益率最高达15%。该网站34岁的创始人丁宁，涉嫌将新投资者的资金投入自己的房地产项目，并用这些资金偿付现有的投资者。

P2P银行的发展壮大，得益于急于购买理财产品的投资者。这些银行原本应该把所筹资金投入房地产开发商等第三方发行的金融产品。据业内估计，随着经济增长放缓，在中国3800家注册P2P银行中，多达三分之一遭遇了财务上的困境。

这类产品提供的回报率比银行存款高得多。它们通常由国有银行推销，却不由后者担保，这在最终用户违约时导致了投资者和银行之间的多起争端。

在上个月召开的中央经济工作会议(Central Economic Work Conference)上，中共认定网络借贷过度是金融体系稳定的一大威胁。

根据新华社的报道，e租宝从逾1百万投资者手中筹集了逾500亿元人民币资金。在该公司开始崩盘之时，部分投资者曾赶到北京，在多个政府办公楼前抗议。去年12月份，至少四个省级公安部门宣布已冻结e租宝资产。

丁宁目前已被捕，记者无法与他联系置评此事。新华社援引了同样被羁押的这家P2P银行的风控人员的话，承认“95%的项目都是假的”。

【秒懂】什么样的网上理财平台要小心？旗下拥有P2P企业的资深P2P企业高管Joe Zhang表示：“很久以来人们就知道e租宝会出问题，因为它太激进了。”

Joe Zhang补充说：“大多数P2P企业试图做正确的事。至于它们是否拥有好的商业模式则是另一个问题了。”目前，Joe Zhang已经把自己的存款交给了P2P银行打理。

根据新华社的报道，丁宁将公司部分资金用于购买极为奢侈的“礼品”，其中包括位于新加坡的一栋价值1.8亿元人民币的别墅，以及一枚价值1200万元人民币的粉钻戒指。同时，作为一名带薪高管，他的弟弟所获薪资超过了每个月100万人民币。

译者/简易