Author: Zhou Weipeng.
Source: Odd & Even Studios.
Zhou Shiping, the former godfather of online loans, how crazy is it?
From 2009 to 2021, in the past 12 years, he illegally absorbed about 109 billion yuan in public deposits from more than 480,000 people through P2P platforms such as Hongling Venture Capital.
Then, knowing that the company had been thundered, he still illegally raised 20.4 billion yuan to repay the principal and interest. Eventually, it resulted in 11960,000 fundraising participants, with a loss of 163 principal8.8 billion yuan.
On December 7, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court.
From A-share bull scatter to the first person in online lending
Zhou Shiping was born in 1968, 4 years younger than Ma Yun and 3 years older than Ma Huateng. Even in this era of stormy meetings, he is also the most daring group of people.
In his early 20s, he didn't go to college, and with a monthly salary of 40 yuan in the factory, he dared to take his entire net worth of more than 8,000 yuan and throw himself into the arms of Big A.
Then, he was taught to be a man by Big A.
At the beginning, he encountered a bear market in 93 years, and he lost only more than 300 yuan;A year later, the position was increased by more than 40,000 yuan, and it soon rose to 650,000 yuan in a big bull market.
In 97, he borrowed money from relatives and made up more than 3 million yuan, and once again stud a big A, but encountered the Asian financial crisis, lost all his money, his wife was separated, and his relatives were betrayedIt wasn't until 2007 that I paid off all my debts and bought 4 suites in Shenzhen.
After experiencing the ups and downs of the world, Zhou Shiping realized that there was no future, and he had a keen sense of finance, and he saw the demand for private lending.
After the global financial crisis in 2008, China's economy took off, but private enterprises that were short of money at that time had difficulty borrowing money from banks, so they had to go to private loans.
The interest rate of private loans is extremely high, and the annualized interest rate of 30% is considered low. And at that time, the economic situation was good, and the default rate was very low.
Qing University and Peking University, it is not as bold as daring!In 2009, Zhou Shiping, who graduated from high school, founded the country's first P2P (online loan) platform - Hongling Venture Capital.
Hongling Venture Capital pioneered the full advance payment model, if the loan on the platform is overdue, Hongling Venture Capital will advance the full amount of investment principal and interest to investors, and at the same time mainly promote large-amount net value targets.
These operations have helped Hongling Venture Capital develop into a star enterprise in Internet finance in just a few years.
At its peak, Hongling Venture Capital exceeded 450 billion yuan in transactions, surpassing Qinghai Province's GDP in 2022. And become a high-quality enterprise of innovative financial network company recommended by the Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, and has been interviewed by the financial channel of ** TV station.
Continuously stepping on thunder, and finally thundering
I often walk by the river, how can I not get my shoes wet.
As a de facto bank, Hongling Ventures' risk control and supervision are much lower than those of traditional banks. Starting in 2015, it began to experience large non-performing loans.
First, the Senhai Garden Project caused Hongling Venture Capital to lose 70 million yuan, and then fell into a bad debt crisis because the borrower of the "Anhui No. 9" real estate project ran away.
In 2017, it successively stepped on Dalian Machine Tool, Huishan Dairy and Yiyang Group, 2600 million yuan of funds could not be recovered.
A large number of overdue superimposed regulatory policies have been tightened, and Zhou Shiping, who promised to give investors a back-up, can no longer hold back. He tried to transform Hongling Ventures, but it didn't go well.
On March 23, 2019, Zhou Shiping announced the liquidation of Hongling Venture Capital, saying that all the lenders had completed full payment within three years.
But until he was arrested, the redemption rate of Hongling Venture Capital was only 12%, and the remaining outstanding payment was still more than 15.6 billion yuan. Another platform he actually controls, Investment Treasure, has also followed in the footsteps of Hongling Venture Capital.
In July 2021, Zhou Shiping was taken criminal coercive measures, and the Hongling Department collapsed.
After Zhou Shiping and others were brought into the case, the public security organs worked very hard 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.
But everyone understands that Zhou Shiping must have no money to pay now. What about the more than 10 billion that disappeared?Part of it pays for the people in front, and part of it squanders itself. According to the documents issued by the Shenzhen Municipal People's Procuratorate: "The funds absorbed by the Hongling Department were used to repay principal and interest, acquire listed companies, buy and sell **, invest in equity, and borrow from abroad, and part of the funds were used by Zhou Shiping to purchase real estate and repay personal debts." ”
ConclusionIn a prominent position on the official website of Hongling Venture Capital, it still retains the investment vision of P2P high returns: the expected annualized return is 8%-12%, and the minimum investment is 50 yuan.
This slogan has attracted countless people, handing over their net worth to Zhou Shiping and to various P2P platforms. 
At the craziest period of P2P, there were 30% or even 50% annual returns.
But you are staring at other people's interest, and others are staring at your principal. In addition to Hongling Venture Capital, there are many, many more P2P lists of Thunderstorm, including Baofeng Finance, Suobei Wealth, and Wenshang Loan.
According to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the actual operation of P2P online lending institutions in the country has gradually decreased from about 5,000 at the peak to zero by mid-November 2020.
No matter what financial product you buy, as long as the annualized rate of return exceeds the yield of the 10-year treasury bond (2.).7%), then you have to be prepared to lose money.
If it exceeds 5%, you must be prepared to lose all your principal.
All the gifts given by fate have already been secretly marked**.