According to the official blog of the Guangdong High Court, Zhou Shiping, chairman of Hongling Venture Capital, was publicly sentenced in the first instance of the illegal fundraising case. Zhou Shiping was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all personal property, while the remaining 17 defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment and fines.
National Business Daily.
The court found that from 2009 to 2021, Zhou Shiping illegally absorbed about 109 billion yuan of public deposits from more than 480,000 people through the issuance of financing targets on the online platform of Hongling Venture Capital Company. During this period, Zhou Shiping and others knew that Hongling Venture Capital Company had a huge capital gap, but still issued false loan targets such as "consumer wealth management", "debt replacement" and "Hongyingbao" to illegally raise funds, and the funds raised were mainly used to repay the due principal and interest of the financing project and maintain the company's operation and other costs that could not generate profits. Zhou Shiping used his identity as the actual controller of "Investment Treasure" and "Hongling Capital Offline Wealth Management" to wantonly use illegal fund-raising funds to raise funds and defraud more than 20.4 billion yuan.
Screenshot of Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court**.
The court held that Zhou Shiping's criminal acts caused huge property losses and seriously disrupted the financial order. The court made the above judgment in accordance with law on the basis of the facts, nature, circumstances, and degree of harm to society of each defendant's crime.
It is understood that after Zhou Shiping was brought into the case, the public security organs made every effort to recover the funds, equity, real estate and other assets involved in the case. The assets that have been recovered will be returned to the fundraising participants in accordance with the law after the judgment takes effect, and Zhou Shiping will be ordered to continue to make restitution for the insufficient part.
Tianyancha APP shows that Hongling Venture Capital E-commerce Co., Ltd. was established in September 2010 with a registered capital of 60 million yuan, and Zhou Shiping serves as the legal representative and chairman of the board and holds about 99 shares99%。Branch information shows that more than half of the company's nearly 30 branches have been cancelled or revoked. According to the risk information, the company has been involved in thousands of lawsuits, including a number of private lending disputes and loan contract disputes. In addition, in December 2022, the company was included in the list of abnormal operations by the Futian Bureau of the Shenzhen Municipal Market and Quality Supervision and Administration Commission because it could not be contacted through its registered residence or business premises. It is worth mentioning that the associated risk information shows that many of the company's subsidiaries have been listed as operating abnormally or seriously violating the law, and many companies have applied for deregistration.
Screenshot of the official website of Hongling Venture Capital.
At present, Zhou Shiping is associated with more than 30 enterprises, of which more than 20 are in existence. Zhou Shiping serves as the legal representative, chairman and executive director of Hongling Holdings, Hongling Venture Capital E-commerce Co., Ltd., and holds shares in 15 companies. The risk information shows that there are a number of information on judgment debtors, dishonest judgment debtors (Lao Lai) and consumption restriction orders under Zhou Shiping's name.
Text丨Rushing News reporter Zhang Pengxiang.