国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Business / Economy

Investors caught in alleged $1.2b scam

(Agencies) Updated: 2015-06-17 09:17

Investors caught in alleged $1.2b scam

Hong Kong is another city where Chinese investors have staged a protest. [Photo/China Daily]

Representatives of API and Alpen could not be contacted, except for the former API director listed in the Swiss public register, Aleksander Kaja, who declined to comment. Offices formerly used by API in Geneva were vacated months ago, while a Hong Kong office was also abandoned, with a writ for unpaid rent left stuck to the doors.

"Both companies used their Swiss image to attract new clients, although they were mainly managed from abroad," Vinzenz Mathys, a spokesman for Bern-based Finma, said. "This, along with the losses endured by depositors, has a negative impact on the Swiss financial market's good reputation."

Chinese investors thought the company's claim that it was regulated in Switzerland made it secure. "Switzerland is famous for its financial-services industry," Han Mingyun, 65, a widow in Wuhan, said. "They are supposed to be the best and safe."

Han was lured by the promise of a Swiss investment and saw $45,000 in savings disappear.

Asked last week about the alleged scam and API's use of Switzerland to draw investors from China, Finma's Chief Executive Officer Mark Branson said: "Where there is a financial center, people will always try to take advantage."

In Beijing, scores of investors have held four protests, the latest last week outside the Embassy of Switzerland, urging the Swiss government to work with China on the investigation.

On May 20, they protested outside the government petition office in Dongcheng district, urging that Chinese police set up a unit to investigate. The Beijing Public Security Bureau and the Ministry of Public Security did not respond to faxed requests for comment. Two telephone calls to the petition office went unanswered.

"We want the police to strengthen their investigation," Han, the widow, who took part in the latest Beijing protest, said. "People around the country are still suffering from the scam."

The investors are aware of complaints from Shanghai, Zhejiang, Chengdu, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Hubei and Shenzhen, and they believe their ranks number 29,000 people who lost the equivalent of $1.2 billion.

They were directed to deposit money in bank accounts in Hong Kong or Chinese mainland, where API representatives told them they would send the cash to Switzerland, they said.

Some of the individual investments totaled more than 1 million yuan ($161,000), according to a report by China Central Television.

Hot Topics

Editor's Picks
...
华容县| 宁国市| 茌平县| 漯河市| 天长市| 兴化市| 天镇县| 环江| 宣化县| 长阳| 夹江县| 黎川县| 宁海县| 静海县| 屏山县| 于都县| 内丘县| 元阳县| 海林市| 玛纳斯县| 边坝县| 遂平县| 宜兰市| 天门市| 承德县| 襄樊市| 涿鹿县| 津市市| 乌鲁木齐县| 栾城县| 上栗县| 乡城县| 古交市| 宝丰县| 紫阳县| 旌德县| 玉溪市| 印江| 汪清县| 分宜县| 龙里县|