A SCAMMER was sentenced to 10 years in jail while his six accomplices were given jail terms ranging from three years and six months to seven years by Luohu District People’s Court for a loan scam, according to the Shenzhen Evening News on Saturday.

This was the first trial for such a loan scam in the city.

According to the prosecutors, one of the defendants surnamed Gao set up a financial services company in 2014 and engaged in private lending.

In July 2014, Gao and his accomplices began to engage in fraud and extortion under the guise of private lending. Gao, the legal representative of the company, was responsible for management and command. The others looked for borrowers, signed illegal contracts and carried out racketeering and extortion.

The gang would specifically target borrowers with poor credit records and those who had mortgages on their apartments or were desperately in need of cash.

When a borrower had fallen into their trap, the suspects would sign illegal loan contracts, commitment letters and payment agreements with the borrower in the guise of the lending party.

At the same time, to prepare for the following fraudulent litigation, they would transfer a much higher amount of money to the borrower’s account and change the terms of the loan contract.

The gang members would ask the borrower to immediately transfer the amount of the loan that exceeded the amount in the contract to a designated account, and persuade the borrower to withdraw most of the borrowed money on the pretext of having to pay a deposit, interest and other expenses.

Gao’s criminal gang victimized 12 people in two months. They filed lawsuits in court and asked the borrowers to repay sums that were much higher than the actual borrowed amount. (Wang Jingli)