涉嫌制造巨大龐氏騙局，通過詐騙手段集資76億美元的e租寶遭警方突擊檢查。

據新華社報道，因涉嫌制造巨大龐氏騙局，通過詐騙手段向小型投資者集資500億元人民幣（76億美元），一向高調的P2P借貸平臺e租寶已有21人遭到逮捕。

而由中國公安部組織建設的非法集資案件投資人信息登記平臺已正式啟用。該平臺一開通，就率先對“e租寶”及其關聯公司涉嫌非法集資案件的投資人開放，該案的登記期限為2月13日至5月13日。

e租寶向投資者許諾的回報率在9%-14.6%之間，高于市場水平，這種做法和伯尼?麥道夫很像。報道稱，2014年7月成立以來，e租寶已經欺騙了約90萬投資者。

被捕的21人中包括e租寶創始人、34歲的丁寧。他涉嫌將新投資者提供的資金投入e租寶自己的房地產項目，并用這些資金向原有投資者還本付息。

新華社指出，丁寧還將部分資金用于送禮，比如斥資2000萬美元（約1.316億元人民幣）在新加坡為e租寶母公司鈺誠集團總裁張敏購買別墅，還曾贈送后者價值180萬美元（約1182.6萬元人民幣）的粉鉆。

理論上，中國的P2P平臺應將所籌資金投入第三方，比如房地產開發商的產品中。

《金融時報》稱無法采訪到丁寧。新華社報道，同樣遭逮捕的鈺誠集團風控總監雍磊承認，“e租寶上95%的項目都是假的”。官方媒體還引述警方消息指出，本應獲得e租寶投資的公司有207家，其中真正拿到投資的只有1家。

發現e租寶所有人正在轉移資金并打算潛逃后，警方突擊檢查了該公司設在安徽省的總部。

法新社稱，中國網民對此事態度不一。一位投資者在微博上問道：“我們的錢就這樣蒸發了嗎？”

另一位網民則發帖說：“面對形形色色的誘惑，投資者必須擦亮眼睛。絕不要貪小便宜。同時要牢記，天下沒有免費的午餐。”(財富中文網)

譯者：Charlie

校對: 詹妮

Chinese officials have arrested 21 people at a high profile peer-to-peer (P2P) lender in relation to a giant Ponzi scheme in which they allegedly scammed small investors out of 50 billion yuan ($7.6 billion), according to the government’s Xinhua News Agency.

Much like Bernie Madoff, the Ezubao lending platform promised investors above-market returns of between 9% and 14.6%. The lender, which was launched in July 2014, had ensnared some 900,000 investors, Xinhua reported.

One of those arrested was Ding Ning, Ezubao’s 34-year-old founder. He allegedly put money from new investors into Ezubao’s own real estate projects and used it to pay off existing investors. Xinhua also reported that Ding spent some of the money on gifts, such as a $20 million villa in Singapore for Zhang Min, president of Ezubao owner Yucheng Group and one of those arrested, as well as a $1.8 million pink diamond.

In theory, China’s P2P platforms are supposed to invest the money they raise into products from third parties, such as property developers.

According to the Financial Times, Ding was not be available for comment, but Ezubao’s risk controller, who is also under arrest, was quoted by Xinhua as admitting that “95 per cent of [our] projects are fake.” Police were quoted in state media as saying that only one of of the 207 companies that supposedly received investments from Ezubao actually did.

Police raided the company, based in the eastern province of Anhui, after learning that its owners were moving money and preparing to flee.

French news agency AFP reported that Internet users in China were split in their opinion of the raid. One investor asked on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, “Does our money just evaporate like that?”

But in another posting, another user wrote that, “Investors must sharpen their eyes facing various seductions. Never go after petty advantages and always remember there is no free lunch.”