MORE than 2,000 people have fallen victim to an investment scam in which investors were defrauded of millions of yuan.
Investors from all around the country were persuaded to put money into a Shenzhen investment company with the promise that their investment would grow 100 percent within 100 days, Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.
The owner of Shenzhen Tiantian Investment Development Co. Ltd., who was allegedly behind the scam, vanished Jan. 15 with more than 100 million yuan (US$15.38 million), the paper said.
Tiantian set up an agency Hong Kong Mainland Investment Enterprises Commodities Fair Co. last October, which claimed to have been commissioned by the Hong Kong SAR Government to help Hong Kong companies with mainland factories that were lagging sales.
It promised investors that each would be given free coupons worth 120,000 yuan issued by the Hong Kong government to stimulate consumption for every investment of 36,000 yuan. It also promised investors that their investment could double in 100 days.
A Shenzhen resident identified as Sun said he lost 500,000 yuan.
Sun said he had checked the business licenses of the company last October when he went to its office in the World Finance Center in Luohu District, after hearing that the company could help people get rich in a short time.
The documents were convincing, he said.
Sun attended a meeting, where Zhao Xinghan, who claimed to be legal person of the Hong Kong Mainland Investment Enterprises Commodities Fair Co., trumpeted a bright future for the investment program.
It was very attractive, he said.
He sold 25,000-yuan in stock and borrowed another 100,000 yuan in shark loans to invest all in the company.
Huang Yumei sold her apartment in a city in Sichuan and a restaurant in Baise in Guangxi to invest 1 million yuan in the company last November. (Mu Zi)
