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1st LD-Writethru: Police searching for illegal fundraiser Gu Zhuoheng

Xinhua, October 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Police are searching for Gu Zhuoheng, who is suspected of involvement in cheating 53.8 million yuan (7.98 million U.S. dollars) from hundreds of investors nationwide in a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending scam, the local public security authority said Thursday.

Prosecutors issued a warrant on May 27, 2015 for the arrest of Gu, who is currently at large for the illegal pooling of public deposits, said the Luohu branch of Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau in a statement.

On Dec. 26, 2014, investors reported to police that Shenzhen Meidai E-commerce had engaged in illegal fund raising through its online P2P platform, www.cnmeidai.com.

Police put the case on file for criminal investigation on Jan. 23, 2015.

According to the investigation, Gu set up Shenzhen Meidai E-commerce with Hao Jianguo and Wang Xuehua in July 2012.

The company illegally raised funds by promising high annual interest rates of up to 20 percent, on nonexistent projects to attract investors, the statement said.

Altogether 406 investors have reported the case to police, Luohu police said, adding that of the 150 million yuan injected into the platform, 53.8 million yuan has not been paid back.

Shenzhen police arrested the company's general manager and shareholder Hao Jianguo, Hao's assistant Wang Xuehua, former corporate representative Shen Wei, and chief financial officer Wang Jing.

All four claimed that Gu is the boss of the company and he decided the operational systems and flow of assets.

Police issued a search warrant for Gu on March 20, 2015.

In May 2016, Hao Jianguo and Wang Xuehua were sentenced to seven years in prison with a fine of 200,000 yuan. They appealed, but the court upheld the ruling in September.

The cases of Wang Jing and Shen Wei were transferred to the local procuratorate for review and indictment in June. Endit