Illegal fund-raising refers to the act of absorbing funds from the public (including units and individuals) in violation of national financial management laws and regulations, which has the following four characteristics: First, it absorbs funds without the approval of relevant departments according to law, or by borrowing legal business forms; The second is to publicize it to the public through the media, promotion meetings, leaflets, mobile phone text messages, etc. The third is to promise to repay the principal and interest or pay the return in the form of money, kind and equity within a certain period of time; The fourth is to absorb funds from the public, that is, social unspecified objects.

Whether to absorb funds from the public or publicize them is an important difference between private lending and illegal fund-raising.

Second, what is illegal financial business activities?

Illegal financial business activities refer to financial activities, including illegal banking, illegal securities business and illegal insurance business activities, without the approval of the relevant financial regulatory agencies.

According to the Measures for Banning Illegal Financial Institutions and Illegal Financial Business Activities, illegal banking activities refer to the following activities without the approval of the CBRC, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange: (1) illegally absorbing public deposits or absorbing public deposits in disguise; (2) illegally raising funds from unspecified social objects in any name without legal approval; (three) illegal loans, settlement, bill discount, capital lending, trust and investment, financial leasing, financing guarantee, foreign exchange trading; (4) Other illegal banking activities recognized by the CBRC or the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange according to law.

Illegal securities business activities refer to the following activities without the approval of the CSRC: (1) securities and futures brokerage; (2) Securities, securities investment funds and futures investment consulting; (3) Financial advisers related to securities trading and securities investment activities; (4) Securities underwriting and sponsorship. (5) Management of securities assets; (6) Raising and management of securities investment funds. (seven) other illegal securities business activities identified by the China Securities Regulatory Commission according to law.

Illegal insurance business activities refer to the following activities without the approval of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission: (1) insurance and reinsurance; (2) Insurance agents; (3) Insurance brokers; (4) Other illegal insurance business activities recognized by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission according to law.

Illegal fund-raising is a kind of illegal financial business. Although the names of illegal fund-raising are different, its essence is still illegal financial business activities.

3. What are the common types and forms of illegal fund-raising activities?

Illegal fund-raising activities involve a wide range of contents and various forms of expression. Judging from the current crime situation, it mainly includes creditor's rights, equity, commodity marketing, production and operation, etc. , which is mainly manifested in the following aspects:

(1) Illegal fund-raising in the name of equity investment (share dividend), high-tech development, planting, breeding, project development, manor development, ecological and environmental protection investment, etc.

(2) Illegal fund-raising in the name of issuing or disguised shares, bonds, lottery tickets, investment funds and other rights certificates or futures trading, e-commerce, pawn, financial leasing, etc.;

(3) Illegal fund-raising in the name of new online finance such as third-party payment, peer-to-peer lending platform, crowdfunding platform and electronic gold investment;

(4) Illegal fund-raising through membership cards, membership cards, seat cards, discount cards, consumption cards, etc. ;

(five) illegal fund-raising by signing commodity distribution contracts, selling and leaseback, repurchase and transfer, developing members, joining merchants, and "quick division method";

(6) illegally raising funds by using non-governmental organizations such as "associations" and "social organizations" or underground banks;

(seven) the use of the network to build "electronic stores", "electronic department stores" and other "virtual" products for investment and entrusted operation, illegal fund-raising;

(8) Divide property, real estate and other assets equally, and illegally raise funds by selling the right to dispose of its shares;

(nine) illegal fund-raising in the form of pyramid schemes or secret series;

4. What are the typical methods of illegal fund-raising in recent years?

First, in the name of pretending to be a private bank, the government initiated the policy of setting up financial institutions supported by private capital, falsely claiming that it has obtained or is applying for a private bank license, and selling original shares or absorbing deposits in the name of fictitious private banks.

Second, non-financing guarantee enterprises illegally raise funds in the name of carrying out guarantee business, mainly selling false wealth management products, or fictional borrowers, illegally absorbing funds in the name of providing loan guarantees.

Third, under the banner of overseas investment and high-tech development, fake or fictional international well-known companies set up websites, publish information such as selling overseas funds, original shares, overseas listing, and developing high-tech online, fictitious the prospect of increasing the value of equity listing or promise high expected returns, and trick people into remitting funds into designated personal accounts, then close the websites and abscond with the money.

Fourth, in the name of investing in apartments for the elderly and sharing care in different places, high returns and providing old-age services are used as bait to lure the elderly to "invest in the partnership"; Or induce the elderly to invest by holding so-called health talks, free physical examinations, free travel, and distributing small gifts.

Fifth, using worthless or low-priced commemorative coins, commemorative banknotes, stamps and other so-called collectibles as tools, claiming that there is huge room for appreciation, promising to buy back at a high price after the agreed time, luring people to buy, and then absconding with the money.

Sixth, illegal fund-raising in the name of P2P, that is, applying the innovative concept of Internet finance, building a so-called P2P peer-to-peer lending platform, taking high interest as bait, absorbing public funds by fictional borrowers and the use of funds, publishing false bidding information and other means, suddenly closing the website or absconding with money. "The public security organs remind the masses that criminal means of illegal fund-raising emerge in an endless stream, and it is necessary to enhance risk awareness and carefully choose investment channels."

5. What harm does illegal fund-raising do to society and individuals?

Illegal fund-raising activities have great social harm. First, the parties involved in illegal fund-raising will suffer economic losses or even lose all their money. The money used for illegal fund-raising may be saved by participants' lifelong thrift or life-saving money, but illegal fund-raisers squander, waste, transfer or illegally occupy these funds, and it is difficult for participants to recover the funds. Second, illegal fund-raising has also seriously interfered with the normal economic and financial order and caused risks. Third, illegal fund-raising can easily lead to social instability, a large number of social security problems, and even social security turmoil in some areas. Since illegal fund-raising is illegal, once losses occur, the parties concerned need to bear them themselves. Therefore, I hope that the public will definitely not participate in illegal fund-raising activities.

Six, engaged in illegal fund-raising activities will be what kind of legal punishment?

According to the provisions of China's criminal law, illegal absorption of public deposits or disguised absorption of public deposits, if the circumstances are serious, can be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and fined; Issuing stocks without approval, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined; Anyone who illegally raises funds by fraudulent means for the purpose of illegal possession may be sentenced to death, fined or confiscated.

7. How can the public identify and prevent illegal fund-raising activities?

The public should pay attention to the following four aspects when identifying and preventing illegal fund-raising:

First, we must recognize the nature and harm of illegal fund-raising, improve our ability to identify and consciously resist all kinds of temptations. Firmly believe that "there will be no pie in the sky", calmly analyze the investment projects with "high return" and "get rich quickly" to avoid being deceived.

Second, it is necessary to correctly identify illegal fund-raising activities, mainly depending on whether the subject qualification is legal and whether the fund-raising activities it engages in raise funds from unspecified social objects; Whether to promise to return the goods; Illegal fund-raising behavior generally has the characteristics of promising a certain percentage of fund-raising returns, whether to cover up the nature of illegal fund-raising in a legal form.

Third, we must enhance the awareness of rational investment. High returns are often accompanied by high risks, and irregular economic activities contain great risks. Therefore, we must strengthen the awareness of rational investment and protect our rights and interests according to law.

Fourth, enhance the awareness of participating in illegal fund-raising at your own risk. Illegal fund-raising is illegal, and the funds and related interests invested by those who participate in illegal fund-raising are not protected by law. Therefore, when some units or individuals peddle high-interest deposits, stocks, bonds, funds and development projects with high return on investment, they must carefully identify and invest cautiously.

Eight, how to treat P2P peer-to-peer lending?

In recent years, P2P peer-to-peer lending has developed rapidly in China, and P2P peer-to-peer lending has played an active role in meeting the market demand for small funds. However, due to many reasons such as congenital deficiency and imperfect legislation, a considerable part of P2P lending has great potential risks. At the press conference on April 2 1 Preventing and Combating Illegal Fund-raising, the Office of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Dealing with Illegal Fund-raising stated that P2P peer-to-peer lending platform, as a new financial format, should define four boundaries while encouraging its innovation and development: First, the intermediary nature of the platform should be defined; Second, it should be clear that the platform itself should not provide guarantees; Third, it is not allowed to raise funds to engage in a fund pool; Fourth, it should not illegally absorb public deposits, let alone commit fund-raising fraud.

9. Beware of illegal precious metal trading.

The electronic trading of precious metals such as gold and silver by using the Internet often has no physical delivery, or the proportion of physical delivery is very low, which is actually illegal standardized contract trading and futures-like speculation. Its trading form: build a so-called "trading platform" in the name of exchange, trading center, investment consulting company and agency company. , often fabricate information such as "government approval" and "government consent", promise high returns, and attract people with weak risk tolerance through various agencies.

1. According to the relevant regulations of China, the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange were established with the consent of the State Council, and the gold trading conducted by any other institution (excluding the wholesale and retail of gold objects and their products) is illegal.

2. In recent years, due to the strict control of gold trading by the state, some unscrupulous merchants and institutions began to speculate on precious metals such as silver. However, according to the relevant regulations, silver or other precious metals can only be traded in cash, and standardized contract transactions cannot be conducted through call auction, continuous bidding, electronic matchmaking, anonymous trading and market makers. Some unscrupulous institutions attract customers to participate in transactions with high leverage, which contains great risks.

3. Individual organizations often use people's trust in the government to fabricate information that "has been approved by relevant government departments". In fact, it was established only after the establishment of industrial and commercial registration, and its business far exceeds the business scope of industrial and commercial registration, which is illegal and beyond the scope of operation. Some institutions conduct business through the internet, which makes it more difficult to investigate and deal with it. Once it happens, it is difficult for customers to recover their losses.

Suggestion: Non-professionals and investors with no industry background should avoid this kind of transaction, especially the "electronic disk" transaction with the banner of "spot" and no physical delivery in essence.