AN internet influencer involved in a large P2P (peer-to-peer) lending platform has been arrested on suspicion of illegal pooling of public deposits, according to a statement released by Futian police.

According to the police, Futian District People’s Procuratorate has approved the arrest of Huang Sheng, the controlling shareholder of Xitouwang, on Aug. 18. Previously, Futian police had submitted an application for the arrest of Huang, another shareholder surnamed Gu and one senior executive surnamed Zhang to the procuratorate.

The preliminary forensic examination found that Xitouwang’s online operation was suspended Feb. 28, 2020, with the platform owing 662 million yuan (US$102.3 million) in outstanding principal from 5,635 lenders. An accounting firm discovered that the platform has paid 659 million yuan back to 6,068 lenders. The data difference will be further verified.

Before being suspended, Xitouwang had had a total transaction volume of more than 4 billion yuan and 17,059 participating lenders.

Xitouwang was founded in May 2014, with Huang holding 62.47 percent of the company’s shares, according to database query platform Tianyancha.com.

Xitouwang’s official website states that Huang was engaged in commercial banking for six years, and PE (Private Equity) investment and M&A (mergers and acquisitions) business for eight years. Many television programs invited Huang as a financial commentator.

Xitouwang’s fame is closely related to Huang. He is a graduate of Peking University’s law school, has over 3 million followers on microblogging platform Sina Weibo and is a WeChat influencer who has published a lot of sensational finance opinion articles. He has convinced his followers to invest their money in his P2P lending platform, according to media outlets.

Huang’s last message on his Weibo account was published July 12. However, his Weibo and WeChat accounts cannot be searched online as of now.

(Xia Yuanjie)