Six arrested in $173m Ponzi scheme in China

SHENZHEN - Police in the southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen have arrested six people in an illegal fund-raising scheme involving 1.19 billion yuan ($173 million).

The platform, financeofchina.com, cheated investors across the country, falsely claiming to be a peer-to-peer lending platform, according to the public security bureau in Futian district.

Local police received a report of the Ponzi scheme in January and launched an investigation thereafter.

The platform did not have a financial license, but it managed to swindle money from individual investors with promises of annual returns of up to 14 percent, the investigation showed.

In August, police arrested six suspects from the company that operated the fund-raising platform over allegedly illegally absorbing public deposits, froze the firm's bank accounts and real estate, and started to track other assets.

Police are also investigating another platform operated by the same company.