e租宝教训：天下没有免费的午餐

涉嫌制造巨大庞氏骗局，通过诈骗手段集资76亿美元的e租宝遭警方突击检查。

据新华社报道，因涉嫌制造巨大庞氏骗局，通过诈骗手段向小型投资者集资500亿元人民币（76亿美元），一向高调的P2P借贷平台e租宝已有21人遭到逮捕。

而由中国公安部组织建设的非法集资案件投资人信息登记平台已正式启用。该平台一开通，就率先对“e租宝”及其关联公司涉嫌非法集资案件的投资人开放，该案的登记期限为2月13日至5月13日。

e租宝向投资者许诺的回报率在9%-14.6%之间，高于市场水平，这种做法和伯尼•麦道夫很像。报道称，2014年7月成立以来，e租宝已经欺骗了约90万投资者。

被捕的21人中包括e租宝创始人、34岁的丁宁。他涉嫌将新投资者提供的资金投入e租宝自己的房地产项目，并用这些资金向原有投资者还本付息。

新华社指出，丁宁还将部分资金用于送礼，比如斥资2000万美元（约1.316亿元人民币）在新加坡为e租宝母公司钰诚集团总裁张敏购买别墅，还曾赠送后者价值180万美元（约1182.6万元人民币）的粉钻。

理论上，中国的P2P平台应将所筹资金投入第三方，比如房地产开发商的产品中。

《金融时报》称无法采访到丁宁。新华社报道，同样遭逮捕的钰诚集团风控总监雍磊承认，“e租宝上95%的项目都是假的”。官方媒体还引述警方消息指出，本应获得e租宝投资的公司有207家，其中真正拿到投资的只有1家。

发现e租宝所有人正在转移资金并打算潜逃后，警方突击检查了该公司设在安徽省的总部。

法新社称，中国网民对此事态度不一。一位投资者在微博上问道：“我们的钱就这样蒸发了吗？”

另一位网民则发帖说：“面对形形色色的诱惑，投资者必须擦亮眼睛。绝不要贪小便宜。同时要牢记，天下没有免费的午餐。”(财富中文网)

译者：Charlie

校对: 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.”