Shanghai prosecutors last year accepted three times as many cases of illegal public savings pooling as in 2015.
Shanghai People's Procuratorate said that 1,189 suspects in 309 cases of illegal public savings pooling were investigated or tried by prosecutors in 2016.
The rapid development of Internet finance is driving the dramatic increase in illegal fund-raising, prosecutors said. Shanghai witnessed its first P2P (peer to peer) fraud case in 2014. In 2016, there were 105 such cases.
Xiao Kai, finance prosecution section chief, said scheme operators used traditional ways to raise funds, like making phone calls, advertising, or soliciting outside stores. But they told the victims, mostly middle-aged people, that they were engaged in online business.
Suspects used pyramid-scheme methods to expand their firms, Xiao said.
