CHARGED with fraud and illegal intrusion into a residence, a gang of 11 engaged in a usurious loan scam recently went on trial at the Futian District People’s Court. The case involved a total of 3.78 million yuan (US$543,470), the Shenzhen Evening News reported over the weekend.

The gang had a clear division of labor under the guise of private lending, according to the report. Some were the actual controllers of the companies and were responsible for management while others were in charge of looking for borrowers, signing illegal contracts, handling bank transfers and collecting debts.

The ring would transfer a much higher amount of money than what was requested to a borrower’s account and write it into the loan contract. Subsequently, they would ask the borrower to immediately transfer the excess amount to a designated account and demand high interest rates, service charges and commissions.

When a victim was unable to repay, the gang would coerce the victim into borrowing new loans from a third party to repay the old ones, which further increased the amount that the victim owed.

In 2016, a victim surnamed Li originally wanted to borrow 345,000 yuan. One of the defendants surnamed Liu transferred 800,000 yuan to Li from a third party’s bank account and asked Li to transferred 300,000 yuan back to Liu’s own account.

Liu also made Li sign other illegal contracts and demanded 155,000 yuan for interest, service charges and commission.

As Li was unable to repay, the gang coerced Li to borrow new loans from a third party eight times. Ultimately, Li’s total debt amounted to more than 2 million yuan. Interest and other fees totaled nearly 200,000 yuan.

On Feb. 25, 2017, the gang illegally broke into Li’s home. They stayed in Li’s home for a long time, during which they molested, humiliated, beat and threatened Li’s wife. Li later called the police and the gang was busted.

A ruling is yet to be announced by the court. (Zhang Yu)