Lanzhou, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Be wary of the new type of "false investment in films".
Xinhua News Agency reporters Liang Jun and Hu Weijie.
There are stars starring, the box office is expected to be 700 million yuan, and the income from an investment of 1.2 million yuan can reach ...... 4 million yuanIt sounds like such a tempting film investment project, but it is actually a **, more than 3,000 people across the country were fooled, and the amount involved was 6More than 500 million yuan.
Lanzhou** recently publicly solicited clues for a film and television investment fraud case, involving 4 companies and 12 films. This new type of fraud is very hidden, and many victims remain in the dark after being scammed. The reporter conducted an investigation on this and uncovered the truth.
More than 3,000 victims were involved, and the amount involved was 6More than 500 million yuan.
A few days ago, the Lanzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate and the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly issued a notice to publicly solicit clues on a film and television investment fraud case. A total of 4 companies and 12 films were involved, of which 5 films had already been released.
In 2022, Lanzhou** detected a film and television investment fraud case led by Li Moumou. The criminal gang carefully designed and arranged the script to attract investors to invest**, and then exaggerated the production cost of the film and the expected box office revenue to guide investors to buy the "revenue share" of the film; They use only a small portion of that money to pay the film's producers to buy shares, and most of the money is spread across multiple bank accounts for criminals to splurge on.
With the cooperation of public security organs in many places, the special case team smashed a number of dens in Beijing, Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places, and seized a large number of computers, mobile phones, false contracts and scripts on the spot, and the main levels of criminal suspects involved in this case have been arrested and brought to justice.
At present, the case has been transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution, transferred for review and prosecution of 45 people, and sorted out more than 3,000 victims nationwide, and the amount involved is 6More than 500 million yuan.
According to Pang Jie, a police officer from the three major teams of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau, the fraud gang cross-held shares in four companies and began to commit fraud as early as 2019, and the victims were defrauded of more than 700 yuan.
In 2022, Lanzhou** issued a notice for soliciting clues for the case for the first time. Due to the fact that the victims are all over the country and there are a large number of victims, in order to effectively and accurately charge crimes and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the victims, ** in January this year, together with the procuratorate, again solicited clues from the public on the gang's violations and crimes.
In 2022, the investigators escorted the suspect back to Lanzhou. (Photo courtesy of Lanzhou Public Security Bureau).
Reveal the secret of film investment fraud routines
*According to the introduction, this case is a fraud case involving new formats, new fields and new methods, and it is very deceptive.
According to the criminal suspect Li Moumou, they hired a promotion company to attract victims for them, and the promotion company sent people to play the role of professional recommendation "mentors" in various ** ticket investment WeChat groups and QQ groups; The ** they recommend will rise the next day, and some will rise for several days in a row, so as to win the trust of the victim.
In the later stage, the "mentor" used the excuse of ** downward, the income became less, the risk increased, and it was guided to the investment in film projects. The "mentor" claims to have connections in the film and television industry, and will have several times the income after the movie is released, while exaggerating the cost of film production. In order to deceive trust, the "mentor" led the students to Beijing, nominally to visit large domestic film and television companies, but in fact, only some external filming was allowed.
The original investment in a movie was 40 million yuan, and the suspect bought part of the share; However, when he signed the agreement with the victim, he exaggerated the total investment several times and defrauded in this way. Pang Jie said.
Li Moumou confessed that taking a certain movie as an example, his Eight Millimeter Culture Company invested 22.1 million yuan and obtained a 45% share. When promoting to investors, he claimed that the total investment of the film was 2200 million yuan, and raised 70 million yuan from 670 investors; A small part of the fraudulent amount is used to pay the film producer to purchase shares, and the remaining amount is used for fraudulent operations and personal squandering.
Ms. Lin from Lanzhou is a victim. She invested 1.2 million yuan in a movie. At that time, they said that there were stars starring, and the box office was expected to be 700 million yuan. If the box office of the movie can reach 700 million yuan, the income can reach 4 million yuan. But after the movie was released, the box office was less than one million yuan. ”
Compared with common fraud cases, this case is more confusing and deceptive - the film and television projects invested by the victim are real, and many films have been released; The film and television company held by the fraud gang is also a formally established company, and the contract signed with the film producer is also true and valid; However, in the agreement signed with the investor, the alleged investment amount far exceeded the actual investment amount of the film, so it was suspected of fraud.
He Xiaodong, deputy director of the Chengguan Branch of the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, said that this kind of fraud crime is difficult to be identified by the masses, and the victims think that the investment has failed, and there are fewer people who report the case, and the number of people who take the initiative to report to the public security organs nationwide is less than 100.
Beware of the traps lurking in the film industry
He Xiaodong introduced that in the next step, we will continue to increase the recovery of funds, dig deep into the property and various accounts under the names of criminal suspects, and investigate large amounts of suspicious funds, especially large cash withdrawals, one by one.
The reporter inquired about the China Judgment Document Network and found that film investment has been repeatedly used by many lawbreakers. In Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, some criminals introduced false "Bigao Film and Television" investment projects in WeChat groups, lured victims with high returns to the Bigao Film and Television app, recharged and purchased false investment and financial products such as film copyrights set up in the app, allowing the victims to obtain high returns in a short period of time, and deceiving the victims to continue to recharge; After that, the app will be closed, so that the victim cannot log in to the app and cannot transfer money and withdraw money.
Li Wenbo, a lawyer at Shaanxi Vaillant Law Firm, said that some institutions or individuals deliberately took advantage of the general public's unfamiliarity with the production, distribution and operation of cultural and creative products to carry out false publicity, conceal the share and consideration of the real transaction target, attract inexperienced investors to enter the game, and raise a large amount of funds, and their behavior is suspected of constituting the crime of fraud.
Chen Weizhong, a producer in the film and television industry, said that criminal gangs defraud in the name of buying and selling film shares, which not only causes a large number of victims, but also has a negative impact on the healthy development of the film market.
Chen Weizhong said that film investment is a high-risk, high-return industry, and laws and regulations should be further improved to regulate film investment behavior, especially the need to improve the information disclosure mechanism; The producer should disclose its own qualifications and real investment amount, so that investors can clearly understand the terms and details of the investment, and minimize the investment risk.
Dong Gaosheng, a lawyer at Beijing Xinnuo Law Firm, suggested that ordinary investors should enhance their risk awareness and not trust the investment advice of strangers on the Internet; For projects that you are not familiar with and have complex legal relationships, you should invest cautiously to avoid being deceived.