11 held during protests over collapsed Ponzi scheme

BEIJING: Authorities have detained 11 investors after protests erupted over the collapse of the country’s latest Ponzi scheme.

Police in Nanjing said they detained the investors and warned another 11.

The Ponzi scheme — called qbao.com or “money treasure online” — took in billions of yuan from millions of investors with authorities estimating it owed 30 billion yuan (RM18.32 billion) at the time of its collapse last month.

Investors were wooed with promises of returns as high as 60 per cent. They were asked to do small “work” tasks on qbao.com’s website. Some of the tasks required users to watch qbao.com’s advertising videos, which could take just minutes each day.

The qbao.com website now displays a bright blue notice that authorities have swapped in for its original page.

The company took in new users’ money to repay old users, said the notice, citing the Nanjing police department.

Users were also encouraged to invest large amounts of money in qbao.com’s wealth management products, like one that required a investment of 200,000 yuan for three years for a return of 1.44 million yuan, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The founder of the scheme, Zhang Xiaolei, turned himself in to authorities last month when he found the company unable to continue payouts.