THE executives of Guoxiang Capital, a peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending platform, were sentenced to jail for illegal fundraising that involved 200 million yuan (US$29.39 million).

According to a verdict handed down by the Longgang District Court, the company hired dozens of people as executives and operation managers to set up an online lending platform, offering 18-24 percent yearly interest to attract investors. The platform lent the money it raised at 20-60 percent yearly interest to beverage factories and enterprises to earn a profit between January 2014 and August 2015.

Many investors have gathered at the office of the company in China South City in Longgang District since the second half of 2015 as they had never received interest payments.

Police started investigating the company boss, surnamed Liu, and other executives in August 2015 and later arrested them.

An investigation showed the platform had illegally raised 200 million yuan from investors.

Liu was sentenced to eight years in jail and was fined 500,000 yuan. Another two executives, identified only by their family names Meng and Zhao, were sentenced to three and two years, respectively. (Han Ximin)