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Today, the Guangdong Provincial higher people's Court made a final ruling on the illegal fund-raising case of Zhou Shiping, chairman of Hongling Venture Capital Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd., rejecting the appeal and upholding the original verdict.

On December 7, 2023, the Shenzhen Intermediate people's Court of first instance sentenced Zhou Shiping to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all personal property for fraud and illegal absorption of public deposits.FreeonlinebingonodepositThe remaining 17 defendants were sentenced to 11 years to two years and six months' imprisonment and fined. After the verdict was pronounced in the first instance, Zhou Shiping and other nine defendants filed an appeal.

The court of second instance found out that from March 2009 to September 2021, Zhou Shiping and others used the "Hongling Venture Capital" platform to illegally absorb more than 109 billion yuan in public deposits from more than 480000 people, using capital preservation, interest payment and high returns as bait. During this period, Zhou Shiping and others still issued false bids knowing that the company had a huge funding gap.FreeonlinebingonodepositThe illegal fund-raising is used to repay the principal and interest due of the financing project, maintain the operation of the company and personal profligacy, with a total amount of more than 20 billion yuan.

The court of second instance held that the judgment of first instance found the facts clearly, the evidence was true and sufficient, the conviction was accurate, the sentencing was appropriate, and the trial procedure was lawful, so the above ruling was made.

It is understood that after Zhou Shiping and others were brought to justice, 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 to the case will be returned to the fund-raising participants in accordance with the law after the judgment takes effect, and the insufficient part will order Zhou Shiping to continue to refund and compensate.