A NUMBER of investors in Shenzhen suspect a Shanghai-based company of having cheated them in a peer-to-peer online lending scam.

    According to a Shenzhen Evening News report, at least 323 people in the country had been cheated out of 66.8 million yuan (US$9.97 million) by the company, which announced its sudden business closure July 5.

    According to a man, surnamed Xu, from Hubei Province, he had invested 60,000 yuan starting in May for a three-month online car loan project offered on the website operated by the P2P company. The project promised him annual interest returns of 25 percent of his investment. At the end of June, the company failed to return his investment and interest to Xu.

    When the investors went to Shanghai to seek refund, they found that the company had been closed by police for investigation. Yue Hongtao, the new CEO of the company, told the investors that the company’s manager, Li Jingchang, and major shareholder, Qian Jianlin, had disappeared.

    The investigation revealed that the company was registered in October 2014, offering on its website various projects with high interest returns of 15 percent for three-month investments to attract investors.

    The company also organized off-line activities with other companies, such as car dealers, with which it claimed to be business partners.

    The website of the company claimed that Shenzhen Guangcai Group was one of its business partners. Guangcai denied any connection with the P2P company when investors visited its office in Zhuzilin in Futian District.

    Shenzhen Qianhai Guangcai Capital Fund Management Co., a subsidiary of Guangcai Group, has also denied any connection with the P2P company. The company’s president, Lin Shanzhi, said his company signed a letter of intended investment with the P2P company, but later aborted it after it discovered irregularities in the P2P company.

    A public notice regarding the P2P company, dated Aug. 1, said that Shanghai police have started an investigation after the company declared bankruptcy. Its headquarters in Shanghai has been closed. (Han Ximin)