AT least four Shenzhen-headquartered companies were shut down for illegal trading in a police raid carried out by the city’s economic crime investigation bureau Friday, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

    Two of the four companies were found sealed up by the police, and several people were taken to the police station for investigation.

    It was reported that all of the companies, though they claimed to be dealing with spot transactions of precious metals and oil, were involved in fraud by engaging future goods.

    On Saturday, a News reporter visited one of the companies located on the 10th floor of Hansen Building in Futian District and found that the company’s doors had been sealed with tape dated Feb. 17, 2017 by the Futian District Public Security Sub-bureau.

    A video clip showed that some employees had been working in the company when police took a few staff members away from the company.

    The Futian District Public Security Sub-bureau said that the raid had been initiated by the city’s economic crime investigation bureau and that the Futian bureau was carrying out the operation in response.

    In a phone interview, officials with the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau confirmed that they had launched the operation, but no details were disclosed.

    According to public information, this particular company was registered in Guangzhou with a capital of 20 million yuan (US$2.91 million). The company focused on setting up branch offices in Shenzhen from 2013 to 2014.

    The receptionist at the building said that the police had suddenly shown up Friday while the company was still under contract with the building.

    Another company, known as Guoyin, sealed by police on the same day was a corporation dealing with rare metals. An unnamed staff member from the company said that they were under investigation and did not know exactly what had happened.

    The staff member disclosed that rumors had been spread that this year would be the toughest year for the industry as China vowed to regulate the illegal operations of commodity trading.

    Through Guoyin, a woman from Yangchun City of Guangdong Province lost nearly 300,000 yuan in spot transactions. Her case has been received by the local public security bureau in Yangchun.

    When the woman was informed that Guoyin had been shut down, she said that she was not aware of it and that she had already handed evidence to the economic crime investigation bureau in Shenzhen.

    A former client with one of the closed companies, known as Lin, said that the companies were actually involved in the trade of future goods in order to swindle their clients.

    Lin said that she also invested 300,000 yuan for trading in spot transactions of silver, but lost all of her money in the end. She disclosed that the so-called “professional instructors” recommended by the companies “taught” them how to make transactions, but eventually cheated them out of money.

    On a national level, Liu Shiyu, president of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, vowed to strictly crack down on the illegal trade of commodities at the end of 2016.

    Following the pledge, a lot of cities have carried out special operations against illegal trading.

    (Zhang Qian)