Many are fooled by fraudulent P2P Ponzi schemes in China because of the promise of big incomes. (Photo : Getty Images)
Another peer-to-peer manager has disappeared and funds are now inaccessible to investors.
The manager, Fang Fan, disappeared in January and eight peer-to-peer sites have announced that the manager is nowhere to be found. At least 1 billion yuan was believed to be stolen.
The sites, cmtouzi.com, naipinglicai.com, zaodianlicai.com, wanerjialicai.com, qianguan360.com, lexinglicai.com, xjinfu.com, huoniu360.com have simultaneously announced that investors will no longer have access to the funds.
The controller of the investment is Beijing Qiyuan Fortune Network Technology Co. One site, cmtouzi.com, invested 170 million yuan on the P2P network.
The site, zaodianlicai.com, invested 350 million yuan while naipinglicai.com invested 170 yuan.
Cmtouzi.com is still operating and assured clients that they can still get their investment back through a financing scheme. They denied that there was mismanagement and their funds are still intact.
China's online P2P platforms have been controversial. In 2016, there are 1,300 platforms which faced issues of scamming and disappearing funds.
A report was released by finance.ifeng.com indicating that there are over 478,000 investors who suffered because of P2P lending fraud.
The increase in fraud led to the 9.55 percent decrease in transactions last month.
Last year, Yang Weiguo, chairman of peer-to-peer online lending platform Wangzhou Fortune, told his staff that he is going to the Gobi Desert to "meditate." He was missing a few days after.
Yang took 1 billion yuan from the 2.2 billion in collections. He was immediately found that arrested by Shanghai police.
He said that he did not steal the investor's money. He wrote a letter that stated, "I decided to clear my mind by traveling for 10 days, cutting all telecommunications contact and being undisturbed . . . to think over strategies and rebuild confidence."
However, the P2P company was suffering from cash flow problems the week before.
Another P2P network that was shut down was the Zhongjin Capital Management, which planned to steal 30 million yuan in investors' money.
The police arrested 20 people involved with Zhongjin.
