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.
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）。
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.
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。