When Qianbao Network became famous, Zhang Xiaolei had many dinners with "Bao Fan" and called this "Lei's feast". Now the "feast" has come to an end. On December 26, 2017, Zhang Xiaolei, the actual controller of Qianbao.com, came to the Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau to write a statement and surrendered himself to the police. He was relieved from a huge deception that could not be filled, but he pushed the "treasure fans" who followed him into the abyss. When Qianbao Network became famous, Zhang Xiaolei had many dinners with "Bao Fan" and called this "Lei's feast". Now the "feast" has come to an end.
How did Ray's Feast end? -- The truth investigation of the illegal fund-raising case of "Qianbao Network"
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Bai Yang and Zhu Guoliang
"Because of the violation of the relevant regulations of the state, the new way to absorb funds from investors, at present, it is impossible to pay the principal interest." On December 26, 2017, Zhang Xiaolei, the actual controller of Qianbao.com, came to the Nanjing Municipal Public Security Bureau to write a statement and surrendered himself to the police. He was relieved of the huge Ponzi scheme that could not be filled, but pushed the "treasure fans" who followed him into the abyss.
It is reported that when Qianbao Network was famous, Zhang Xiaolei had many dinners with "baofan" and called this "Lei's feast". Now the "feast" has come to an abrupt end, revealing the true face of the viciousness behind it. Focusing on the relevant doubts of this case, the reporter rushed to Nanjing a few days ago to interview the main criminal suspects and related enterprises such as the police and Zhang Xiaolei who handled the case on the spot, and restored the truth behind the "Qianbao system" and "industrial empire".
In the name of "receiving wages", borrowing the new to pay back the old is the truth
"Pay deposits, watch advertisements, do tasks, and earn extra money", this tempting slogan, is the secret of the rapid rise of Qianbao in just a few years. The preliminary investigation by the police shows that Qianbao Network uses high returns as bait to continue to absorb new user funds and use them to redeem the principal and income of old users to illegally absorb a large number of funds from the unspecified public, involving fundraising participants all over the country, and as of the time of the case, the principal amount of unpaid fundraising participants has reached about 30 billion yuan.
Zhang Xiaolei claimed that the business model of Qianbao.com is to establish an online platform to attract user attention, and when user resources are accumulated to a certain scale, they will cooperate with advertisers to build an advertising sales channel.
In order to "save" users, Qianbao network designed "check-in" and "do tasks" and other methods. The so-called "doing tasks" are divided into advertising tasks, sharing tasks, experience tasks, questionnaire tasks, etc., different tasks need to pay different amounts of "security deposit", "security deposit" the more the higher the income.
Taking advertising tasks as an example, participants need to click to watch the advertisement provided by Qianbao. However, according to Zhang Xiaolei and a number of company executives, there have been almost no external brands advertising since the platform was launched, and its "task" is mainly to find ads and internal videos from the Internet.
In the publicity of Qianbao Network, the behavior of participants to complete tasks and obtain benefits is called "receiving wages". Many participants told reporters that the task can be completed in a few minutes, as long as the daily check-in and "task" are completed according to the regulations, the "salary" obtained can reach a yield of 40%-60%. The police handling the case said that the act of watching advertisements could not produce such a high income.
Wang Wei, a lawyer at Jiangsu Sanfa Law Firm, said that normal wages and remuneration should be linked to the amount of labor, but the so-called "wages" in this case are directly linked to the amount of "security deposits", which is not real labor remuneration in essence, but only a cover-up statement about "principal" and "interest".
The reporter learned that while Qianbao Launched "Tasks" online, it also provided various high-yield investment products offline. Taking the Suhe Phase II product launched at the end of 2014 as an example, it was agreed to give a return of 1.44 million yuan after investing 200,000 yuan for 3 years, and then converted the offline products to online.
Under the temptation of high interest rate returns, the scale of Qianbao's membership has expanded rapidly. Zhang Xiaolei said that as of the time of the crime, the daily active users of Qianbao Network reached one million.
Users of this size mean a huge interest expense. Zhang Xiaolei said frankly that Qianbao's absorption of users' margins is the main way to solve the problem of funds. Duan Mou, the general manager of offline products of Qianbao Company, also confirmed that the funds absorbed from users did not go through third-party custody, but entered the corporate capital pool account and Zhang Xiaolei's personal account, most of which were used to redeem the principal and income of old users.
"Such a high interest rate is certainly not going to last long." I myself have never taken the initiative to invest in Qianbao. Yang Mou, director of the Strategic Development Research Center of Qianbao Company, said.
The "industrial empire" of lies
In order to maintain the chain of "high interest payments", more financial support needs to be attracted. To this end, Zhang Xiaolei carefully concocted an illusion of "qianbao system" and "industrial empire".
In the overwhelming advertising campaign of Qianbao.com, there are more than 70 "Qianbao" enterprises, covering different fields such as micro-business, real estate, football, glycerin, and shared bicycles. However, police investigations show that there are only about 20 companies in actual operation, and the profits generated are far from enough to cover the high interest rates required, and most of these companies are internal related party transactions, and there are very few external profit sources.
In order to strengthen his own aura, Zhang Xiaolei also packaged some of his projects as promising "high-quality assets" and hyped it. However, after the reporter's field visit, he found that the real situation of these projects is far from the propaganda content.
Taking the "Jiangbei Smart City" as an example, the advertisement claims that it "covers an area of more than 200 acres and has a comprehensive market value of nearly 20 billion yuan". According to the police investigation, the cost of Qianbao Company when it obtained this land plot was more than 1.2 billion yuan. The reporter saw at the project site that the construction site was covered with wild grass, and only the façade of the two buildings was renovated, and the interior was still rough. The person in charge of the Pukou District Land Exchange of the Nanjing Municipal Land Bureau said that this land is a land for scientific research and design, with limited value-added space, and it cannot be changed arbitrarily according to the plan and cannot be used for residential development.
Another "Laoshan Forest Park Resort" project of Qianbao Company, which is packaged as "worth 10 billion yuan", is the aviation land purchased by "Qianbao" enterprises for more than 200 million yuan. The relevant person in charge of the land department said that the planned use of this land and the transfer contract stipulate that it can only be used for aviation staff dormitories, terminals, air passenger accommodation, etc., and cannot be used for general commercial development.
In 2013, Jiangsu Jixin Glycerin Technology Co., Ltd. was acquired by the "Qianbao" company, and the chemical plant that was originally unknown in Huai'an has since been transformed into a top enterprise with "Asia's first and annual profit of more than 200 million". The reporter learned that the annual design production capacity of the plant is 100,000 tons, but the actual production volume in 2017 is 48,000 tons, even in Jiangsu Province, it is not prominent; from the perspective of corporate tax returns and accounting statements, the turnover of the plant in 2016 was 257 million yuan, and the net profit was only 11.66 million yuan.
As for Chengdu Qianbao Football Club, which has made many participants talk about it, according to the police investigation report, the club's net assets in 2016 were -18.79 million yuan, borrowed more than 70 million yuan, and also owed millions of yuan in players' salaries, and has become insolvent.
According to the police handling the case, Zhang Xiaolei on the one hand created a false image of "money and treasure" enterprises with "rich and powerful money" through marketing, and on the other hand, he created a people-friendly image to win people's hearts. Many participants said that Zhang Xiaolei often interacts with users in live broadcasts, affectionately refers to users who participate in "investment" as "partners" in doing business together, and will also take users to visit projects and launch some public welfare activities every year, so as to gain the trust of participants.
A three-year "surrender plan"
A growing funding gap is making the scam increasingly unsustainable. Zhang Xiaolei said that in recent years, the company has had one or two user runs every year. According to Kang Mou, an executive of Qianbao Company, in a centralized run on Qianbao Network in August last year, the company narrowly survived the crisis by extending the arrival time of withdrawals, improving the yield of online tasks and increasing the rapid withdrawal fee. In fact, after the inability to maintain the capital scam, Zhang Xiaolei has no way out.
"I've been preparing for this day for three years." Inside the high walls of the detention center, Zhang Xiaolei frankly said that Qianbao Network violated relevant state regulations by borrowing new money to absorb funds from investors, and "the hole can no longer be filled." According to the preliminary investigation by the police, the funds and assets of the "Qianbao" enterprises are far from being able to fill the principal gap of the unpaid fundraising participants.
Ironically, Zhang Xiaolei's "treasure powder" that had previously been compared to the existence of relatives was eventually completely abandoned. Zhang Xiaolei said: "The losses of the 'treasure fans' are caused by me, and I am willing to bear legal responsibility." ”
One participant said that he was also worried about the high returns of Qianbao.com at first, but was deceived by the strength packaged by Zhang Xiaolei, so he decided to gamble. "Of the 220,000 yuan invested, 110,000 yuan was borrowed, and I hate Zhang Xiaolei and blame myself for being too greedy." He said remorsefully.
"My actions violated the relevant laws of the People's Republic of China, and I apologize for the losses caused by investors." I am willing to accept the punishment of the law. I am willing to actively cooperate with the relevant departments to properly handle the aftermath and strive for leniency. Zhang Xiaolei said.
Sun Guoxiang, a professor of criminal law at Nanjing University, pointed out that in recent years, the criminal means of illegal fund-raising have been continuously renovated, which is extremely concealed and deceptive. Qianbao network to complete the task to obtain high returns as bait, collect user "security deposit", and the use of new user funds to pay the old user principal and income, its operation mode has the characteristics of Ponzi scheme, once spread, will have a huge impact on the financial system and even social stability, seriously affecting the development of the real economy.
It is reported that at present, the Nanjing public security organs are speeding up the progress of case investigation and handling, going all out to carry out the work of recovering stolen goods and recovering losses, and recovering the losses of the participants in the fund-raising to the greatest extent. The police said that the public security organs have opened a "Qianbao network user cooperation investigation and evidence collection acceptance registration platform", hoping that the fundraising participants will promptly and actively report the case and register information to protect their legitimate rights and interests; at the same time, the fundraising participants are invited to express their demands in accordance with the law, do not believe in rumors, do not spread rumors, are not deceived, and do not organize and participate in various illegal activities.
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