"The payment time has been delayed again and again, and everyone has no choice but to come here." A few days ago, many dealers gathered outside the Pan Tea R&D Center to try to enter to ask for explanations. And the dealers upstairs also shouted "return the money" in unison. In recent days, the news of the tea brand Pan Tea "thunder" has spread rapidly, pushing it to the forefront. On August 5, Fancha announced that it would suspend all receptions and only accept the distributors themselves. Some industry insiders speculate that this may be the largest "financial tea" incident involving the amount of money involved in the Fangcun tea market so far.
A number of announcements were made within 15 days, causing an uproar
On July 22, Fancha suddenly issued an announcement, saying that the bank accounts of the company and some dealers were frozen, and it is speeding up efforts to deal with the unsealing of bank accounts, which is expected to be unsealed in early August 2024. At the same time, the announcement pointed out that in order to ensure the security of transactions during the unfreezing of bank accounts, it is recommended that all platforms and dealers postpone the delivery time of all orders by 10 days and return to normal after August 2.
A dealer at the scene told reporters that before this announcement was released, Pan Tea may have collapsed. "The payment time has been delayed since about half a month ago. Since then, there has been a vague feeling that something is wrong. He said.
"I received 500,000 yuan on the morning of July 17, and I haven't received the money since." Yang Juan (pseudonym), who has invested tens of millions of yuan one after another, told reporters, "I was surprised when the announcement on the 22nd came out, but at that time, everyone still believed in Pan Tea, and felt that 10 days could be waited, and no one made trouble." ”
On July 24, Fancha once again issued the "Announcement on Regulating Trading Behaviors", strictly prohibiting trading behaviors that promise capital preservation and rebates, and adhere to the principle of spot trading. According to Yang Juan, after the announcement was issued, the market's enthusiasm for pan tea has not decreased, and there are still people who continue to enter the game.
However, Fancha did not resolve the issue by August 2, as stated in its announcement. On August 3, Fancha issued the "Announcement on Restructuring", saying that the company has suffered unknown attacks for a long time since its establishment, and since the beginning of this year, it has caused market instability due to various rumor attacks, resulting in a large number of funds being restricted. Pan Tea said that it would actively face the current situation and make every effort to solve the problem. At the same time, after the discussion of the board of directors and core dealers, the company will be restructured in debt or equity, and the specific restructuring plan will be announced after the liquidation of assets and voting.
With high returns as bait, someone takes out a loan to buy
"I don't even know who the dealer is." At noon on August 4, Wang Ling (pseudonym) was stopped by security guards at the gate on the first floor of the Pan Tea R&D Center, and the other party said that he wanted to confirm the identity of the dealer when he entered the building. After trying to no avail, Wang Ling told reporters that her "upper home" was an acquaintance friend, not a pan tea dealer. The other party said that the pan tea has a lot of room to rise, and the dealer will "go to the bottom", only need to buy 2 cakes of tea (14,000 yuan per cake), and 34,400 yuan will be returned after 40 days, with a profit of up to 22.9%.
As a result, Wang Ling bought 2 cakes of tea on June 24 this year, which was originally scheduled to expire on August 4. Now after discovering that there was a problem with Fancha, she contacted the friend again, and the other party said that she could not contact the distributor and asked her to go directly to the R&D center to discuss the explanation.
The reporter learned that many people entered the pan tea, although they bought tea as the reason, but in fact there was no physical transaction of tea, and there was no legally effective document such as signing a contract with the "upper family". "Wherever the tea is given, it is all transferred, and a receipt is given." After being stopped by the Pan Tea security guard, Xie Xiaomei (pseudonym) tried to wait not far away, hoping to wait for an opportunity to go up and ask for an explanation.
On August 4, there was a suspected conflict in the Pan Tea R&D Center, and ambulance personnel arrived at the scene.
Like Wang Ling, Xie Xiaomei is also a retail investor who has been "commissioned" at various levels. Her "last home" is not a dealer, saying that there are different modes of buying tea such as 15 days, 20 days, 28 days, 50 days, etc., and the longer the time, the higher the profit, and the principal plus interest will be returned in full after expiration. When she first entered the game, she was more cautious and bought very little, but when she saw that she cashed in every time it expired, she bought more and more. "Every day there are new products, and every day there are people buying them. The whole person was slowly trapped in this way, and he was indeed greedy, thinking about making some quick money, who knew that greed would be poor! At present, Xie Xiaomei has invested more than 400,000 yuan, and she can't find a dealer when she tries to find it, "Even if she finds it, she won't have the money to give, and now she has no choice but to wait." ”
"Those who can go up (the R&D center) have invested at least one or two million, or even tens of millions, and there are many small retail investors who can't go up at all, don't think about getting it back." A person familiar with the matter at the scene revealed. In the online rights protection group, some people said that "many people took out loans to buy" and "the batch that went in later were basically loans". The person familiar with the matter also agreed.
At nearly 13 o'clock at noon on August 4, dealers walked out of the gate of the Pan Tea R&D Center one after another. A dealer told reporters that the staff of Pan Tea distributed paper to the dealers upstairs, registered their names and investments, and said that they would come up with a plan within 3 days. "It is estimated that it is delaying time, but it can't be solved by spending on it, so I can only register first." With that, the dealer rode away.
On August 4, when the police cordoned off the scene, many people were reluctant to leave.
At around 2 p.m. on August 4, the police began to pull up a blockade to block the scene, and the blockade gradually expanded from the gate on the first floor of the R&D center to the entire parking lot area. Despite this, there are still many people trying to enter the R&D center one after another.
5% is redeemed, and the remaining 95% is replaced with new products, and the solution is difficult to convince the public
As the incident continued to ferment, at noon on August 4, Fancha issued another announcement. The announcement gave a redemption plan, saying that "the company will solve it to the end and accompany everyone to the end." ”
However, as soon as the announcement came out, it was opposed by many dealers who entered the R&D center building. "5% is too little", "I can't pay back the loan even if I only give 5%", "I didn't give it when someone wanted to take me last month, and now I can only give 5%"...... Some buyers pointed out that the announcement was full of errors and omissions, but in fact it was a "trap": "You can only get 5% of the money, and the remaining 95% will be exchanged for new products, what is the new product?" When will I be able to redeem it? ”
Whether offline or online, the voices of doubt never stop. "Put pressure on your superiors and let dealers spit out the commission they have earned" "It's okay if you can give me 3% off, and the rest should be given to them for retirement"...... Many people expressed their opinions in relevant WeChat groups. In addition, some people said in the group that they could recover it at a 1% discount.
In the past few days, many retail investors have continued to spontaneously go to the Pan Tea R&D Center to gather. However, some industry insiders pointed out that many retail investors did not directly connect with dealers because they were "commissioned" at various levels, and at the same time, there was no evidence in hand, and there was little hope of protecting their rights.
Pan tea, why is it so popular?
According to public information, Fancha Holdings (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. was established on September 27, 2022, with a registered capital of 10 million yuan, with a legal representative Zheng Chaogen. Headquartered in Fangcun, it is mainly engaged in the research and development, promotion and channel construction of tea products. As of June this year, the number of offline physical stores of Pan Tea has exceeded 600.
The doors of many pan-tea distributors are closed.
According to a person familiar with the matter, although Pan Tea has not recognized the guaranteed income, most of the dealers have attracted entrants with high returns in specific operations, which in turn has caused a large number of roasted tea customers to seek after. Within two years, Pan Tea quickly became a "giant" tea company in the tea market, and myths such as "fried Pan Tea earned a small goal in a year" were also widely spread.
"Financial tea is not advisable in the first place." There is a tea merchant in Fangcun who commented like this. "This is another 'Ponzi scheme', they think they have made money, but in fact they are 'leeks', and it is only a matter of time before they collapse." The tea merchant speculated that the amount involved in this incident was at least tens of billions, and there may be very few people who can get back the principal.
Written by: Southern Rural Daily reporter Ou Xiaochang Yan Qiufan