EIGHTEEN people of a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending agency, including company executives, have been detained in the latest of a string of scandals for Shenzhen-based P2P lending websites.

    The chairman of the P2P lending agency, Shenzhen RJS Investment Group, is reportedly missing.

    The website is under investigation for allegedly raising public funds illegally, ifeng.com, the official website of Phoenix TV, reported yesterday.

    The Shenzhen RJS Investment Group has 31 offices nationwide. Since opening in May 2013, RJS Investment’s transaction volume reached about 4.71 billion yuan (US$741 million).

    According to a WeChat post of JR21.cn, a well-known financial news website, the Shenzhen-based P2P agency is being investigated by the economic crime division as of Monday.

    The company’s president, Zhang Dongbo, vice president, Liu Fenglei, general manager, Meng Chulai, and 15 staff members have been detained by the police. The chairman, Sun Mingda, has disappeared.

    The website said yesterday that police only conducted a routine inspection Monday and had conversations with the company’s employees.

    It added that the website is operating normally and the investigation is ongoing.

    The law has struggled to keep up with P2P investment websites, leaving them partially unregulated and leading to a surge in legal cases related to P2P fraud.

    The year of 2014 saw 10 times as many P2P related legal cases as 2013. In 2014 the money involved in such cases was 16 times that of 2013.

    Shenzhen will launch a citywide inspection of the P2P online lending sector, while several P2P websites will be investigated, according to the report on ifeng.com.

    The RJS Investment allegedly posted false information and faked pictures, according to the ifeng.com report.

    (Zhang Yang)