Enticing millions of people and losing more than 10 billion yuan! The fund-raising fraud case behind the "0 yuan purchase" fell into a hammer Gu Guoping was sentenced to life in prison

Per reporter: Zhang Yi Per editor: Liao Dan

According to the official WeChat public account information of the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court"), on the morning of December 8, 2021, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court publicly pronounced a verdict in accordance with the law on the case of defendants Gu Guoping, Nong Jin, Chen Yu, Zhu Jun, Wang Jingjing, and Zhang Jimin for fund-raising fraud.

Among them, Gu Guoping was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of his political rights for life, and confiscated all his personal property; Nong Jin, Chen Yu, Zhu Jun, Wang Jingjing, and Zhang Jimin were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 15 to 10 years for the crime of fund-raising fraud, and personal property was confiscated of 5 million yuan to 600,000 yuan.

It is worth noting that the information disclosed by the court shows that Gu Guoping designed the "0 yuan purchase" marketing campaign by manipulating the "Lianbi Financial" and "Huaxia Wanjia Financial Services" platforms to lure the public to purchase wealth management products, resulting in more than 1.1 million victims "entering the game", resulting in actual economic losses of nearly 12.6 billion yuan.

Lianbi Financial, once one of the "four high-rebate platforms", became famous in the huge PHICOMM router "0 yuan purchase" marketing campaign.

According to Qixinbao information, in May 2014, Shanghai Lianbi Electronic Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lianbi Company") was registered and established in Songjiang District, Shanghai, and its business scope mainly involves electronic technology, computer hardware and software and network equipment, communication equipment and peripheral products, technology development, services, investment consulting and investment management in the field of information technology.

At the beginning of its establishment, the registered capital of Lianbi Company was only 500,000 yuan, and the legal representative was Nongjin. After its establishment, the company underwent three rounds of capital increase in January 2015, September 2015 and May 2017, and the registered capital was finally increased to 166.667 million yuan.

After trial by the court, it was ascertained that in January 2015, defendant Gu Guoping actually controlled Lianbi Company. In July of the same year, Gu Guoping asked the defendant Nong Jin to set up a financial team at Lianbi Company and develop an online platform for Lianbi Financial APP to illegally raise funds.

Later, in order to expand the number of Customers of Lianbi Financial APP, Gu Guoping used his actual operation of Shanghai PHICOMM Data Communication Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai PHICOMM") and Lianbi Company to launch the purchase of electronic products such as Shanghai PHICOMM routers and online registration of Lianbi Financial APP members, which can get the full refund of the purchase price of Lianbi Company's "0 yuan purchase" marketing activity, attract the public to register, and publish a false asset package of the shell company actually controlled by Gu Guoping on the online platform of Lianbi Financial APP. All kinds of wealth management products with targeted entrusted investment projects as the target use high interest returns and commitments to guarantee principal and interest as bait to trick the public into investing and purchasing.

In this process, the defendants Nong Jin, Chen Yu, Zhu Jun, Wang Jingjing, and Zhang Jimin respectively participated in company management, product design, capital allocation, system maintenance, and other acts. By the time of the case, the actual economic losses of more than 908,600 victims were more than 9.971 billion yuan.

In addition, since September 2017, Gu Guoping, in the name of Shanghai PHICOMM, has cooperated with Huaxia Wanjia (Beijing) Financial Services Outsourcing Co., Ltd., which is actually controlled by Gu Guoping, to launch the "0 yuan purchase" marketing campaign of purchasing shanghai PHICOMM body fat scales and other products, and registering online with huaxia Wanjia Financial Services APP to get a full refund of the purchase price.

During the same period, Gu Guoping used the aforementioned similar means to lure the public into purchasing wealth management products on the Huaxia Wanjia Financial Services APP, illegally raising funds, and instructing defendant Zhu Jun to arbitrage and occupy them. By the time of the case, a total of more than 194,200 victims had suffered actual economic losses of more than 2.602 billion yuan.

This also means that through the manipulation of online platforms such as "Lianbi Finance" and "Huaxia Wanjia Financial Service", Gu Guoping has lured more than 1.1 million victims, and the actual economic losses of the victims have exceeded 12.573 billion yuan, close to 12.6 billion yuan.

The Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court held that the defendants Gu Guoping, Nong Jin, Chen Yu, Zhu Jun, Wang Jingjing, and Zhang Jimin jointly used fraudulent methods to illegally raise funds for the purpose of illegal possession, and the amount was huge, and their acts all constituted the crime of fund-raising fraud. The above-mentioned defendants' fund-raising fraud caused particularly heavy economic losses to the victims and seriously undermined the state's financial order, and the above-mentioned judgment was made in accordance with law in light of the facts, nature, circumstances, and degree of social harm in this case.

Information released by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court also shows that more than 20 people, including the defendant's family and the victim, observed the verdict at the trial site and in the video courtroom. The Shanghai Municipal Judicial Organs will continue to strengthen the recovery of stolen assets involved in the case.

According to public information, on June 21, 2018, according to reports from the public, the Songjiang Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau filed a case against Lianbi Financial for the crime of illegally absorbing deposits from the public, and 10 people, including Gu Guoping and Nong Jin, were arrested by the Songjiang District People's Procuratorate for suspected crimes of fund-raising fraud and illegal absorption of public deposits.

According to the police report, after investigation, Lianbi Electronics has set up an online investment and wealth management platform of "Lianbi Finance" without the approval of the relevant departments, and through public publicity, promised annualized returns ranging from 6% to 12%, and illegally raised funds from the unspecified public.

In response to the case, the Shanghai public security organs set up a joint investigation team, which successively took criminal compulsory measures against more than 30 criminal suspects, and in August 2018, Nong Jin, who had fled abroad, was arrested and escorted back to China. In May 2019, the case of criminal suspects Gu Guoping, Nong Jin and others suspected of fund-raising fraud and illegally absorbing deposits from the public was transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution.

On February 4 and 5 this year, the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court held a public trial of the first-instance trial of the defendants Gu Guoping, Nong Jin, Chen Yu, Zhu Jun, Wang Jingjing, and Zhang Jimin in the fund-raising fraud case. According to the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court, during the trial, the public prosecution alleged that after auditing, Gu Guoping illegally raised more than 83 billion yuan through the "Lianbi Financial" and "Huaxia Wanjia Financial Services" platforms, causing losses to more than 1.1 million victims totaling more than 12 billion yuan. The funds raised are used to pay the principal and interest of investors, pay operating expenses, payment for goods and repay debts.

It is worth mentioning that during the trial of this case, the 19.45% equity of Shanghai PHICOMM held by Gu Guoping became the target of execution due to an economic dispute case and was placed on the Ali auction platform for public auction.

However, this equity did not arouse the interest of the market, and it could not be auctioned in the first and second auctions. Although the subsequent sale price was 728 million yuan, which was less than 30% off the appraisal price, it was still unattended. On February 19 this year, after a 60-day selling period, it ended with a streaming auction. Qixinbao shows that as of now, Gu Guoping still holds 19.45% of the equity of Shanghai PHICOMM.

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