May 15 is the National Public Security Organs' Publicity Day for Cracking Down on and Preventing Economic Crimes. Over the years, the national public security and economic investigation departments have always adhered to the principle of striking hard in accordance with the law, and have made arrangements to carry out special crackdowns and concentrated rectification of prominent economic crimes that occur frequently and have strong public reactions, resolutely safeguarding the vital interests of the broad masses of the people and vigorously defending the country's economic and financial security.
With the development of the times and technology, new types of economic crimes have shown the characteristics of networking, virtualization, new, and cross-border, and the modus operandi has become increasingly concealed and constantly renovated, and the difficulty of prevention has increased significantly, so it is urgent to crack down on new economic crimes.
Investment money that cannot be withdrawn
In March 2022, Ms. Ding from Chongqing met a man named Mr. Yang while doing business. Mr. Yang often posts photos of public welfare activities on Moments, and Ms. Ding is very interested and asks Mr. Yang if he can also participate in them. Mr. Yang sent an invitation to Ms. Ding, saying that he did not need to pay money, but only needed to form a small team and determine the target of help, and then he could directly apply for public welfare funds.
Mr. Yang donated 20,000 yuan to Ms. Ding to help Ms. Ding and her team successfully carry out public welfare activities. After that, Ms. Ding also joined the "Shandexin" association. Every time he organizes a charity activity, Mr. Yang will transfer the required funds as promised, which makes Ms. Ding trust him more and more.
In May 2022, Mr. Yang told Ms. Ding that the "Shandexin" association makes profits through investment and financial management, and each donation is a small part of the profits, and if Ms. Ding is interested, she can also invest and profit with the association. Subsequently, Mr. Yang introduced to Ms. Ding an investment and wealth management app launched by "Shandexin".
For the first time, Ms. Ding tried to invest more than 1,000 yuan, and in just 15 days, she earned nearly 100 yuan. The second time, Ms. Ding chose to invest an additional 100,000 yuan, earning nearly 10,000 yuan in just one month.
In order to obtain greater returns, Ms. Ding continued to increase her investment, totaling more than 3 million yuan, and encouraged her relatives and friends to invest together. However, it wasn't until she couldn't withdraw all the money she had put in that Ms. Ding realized that she had been cheated.
Behind the charity, it is actually a pyramid scheme
In September 2022, Mr. Zhang, who was also in Chongqing, received a phone call from his cousin. His cousin introduced him to an association called "Shandexin", saying that he could make money while doing charity.
Mr. Zhang suspected that it might involve a pyramid scheme and advised his cousin not to do it, but his cousin repeatedly recommended it to him and called other family members. As a last resort, Mr. Zhang had no choice but to call the police.
After receiving the report, the police of the Rongchang District Public Security Bureau of Chongqing Municipality immediately launched an investigation into the "Shandexin" association. After investigation, the association was found to have not been registered and filed and was an illegal social organization. It claims to be founded by a Singapore-based company and has launched an investment and money management app that looks like cutting-edge technology and claims to be able to earn high returns in a short period of time.
While investing and managing money, you can also use this app to make a profit by "pulling people's heads". The police found that the investment and financial management application launched by the "Shandexin" association has three or more hierarchical relationships. Each investor can develop the downline to form their own team, the more people in the team, the more levels, and the higher the amount of deposit, the higher the profit of the team leader.
The police believe that the above-mentioned acts have been suspected of constituting the crime of organizing and leading pyramid schemes. On September 20, 2022, the Rongchang Police of Chongqing Municipality filed a case for investigation into the case of the "Shandexin" Association suspected of organizing and leading pyramid marketing activities.
Pseudo-charity that harms others and oneself
The police conducted a fund investigation and control of the bank accounts collected by the investment and wealth management app, and analyzed several suspicious personal accounts of Cao, Tao, and Qiu.
On October 26, 2022, the Public Security Bureau of Rongchang District, Chongqing Municipality decided to arrest Cao, Tao and others.
Cao met his upline Yang Jun in a public welfare activity group in 2021. At the beginning, Yang Jun transferred the charity money to Cao to do charity activities. Subsequently, Yang Jun began to promote the so-called strong background and good corporate image of the "Shandexin" Association to Cao. Cao was convinced of this, and after entering the association, she called more people to join according to Yang Jun's instructions, and her good friends Tao and Qiu were the first to develop.
On May 18, 2022, Cao, Tao and others learned through Yang Jun that the "Shandexin" Association had launched a financial management app. Cao, Tao and others began to invest one after another, and they all obtained high returns in the early stage, but after investing more and more, these investments and income have never been taken out.
In the early stage, the "Shandexin" association attracted caring people through charity and public welfare activities, and at the same time established a caring corporate image in front of the public. Then, by introducing the sources of donations, the public can believe in the association's strong financial background and investment and financial management capabilities. Finally, through the words of "let good people have good rewards", more people will participate in investment and financial management.
The case involved more than 20 provinces, and the Rongchang police in Chongqing filed a nationwide cluster campaign with the Economic Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. Through combing the background data of the investment platform of the "Shandexin" association, the police found that the number of registered users has reached more than 59,000, and the recharge amount is as high as 3.3 billion yuan.
At the same time as the public security organs investigated, the civil affairs department also dealt with the illegal organization "Shandexin". In September 2022, the Ministry of Civil Affairs included the "Shandexin" Association in the second batch of suspected illegal social organizations in 2022 and released it to the public.
At present, the case is still under further investigation. The real identity of the person involved in the case, Yang Jun, is still being investigated by the police.
[Source: CCTV Today's Statement]
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