Chinese courts pledge to increase pressure on financial crime after sharp rise in prosecutions for illegal crowdfunding, pyramid schemes and bad loans

The Chinese Supreme Court’s senior judge and top prosecutor have pledged to tackle illegal financial schemes after official figures showed that the number of criminal trials for pyramid scams alone rose tenfold last year.

Financial scams have spread rapidly across China in the past decade and victims of the schemes, which offer unrealistically high returns, often include the most vulnerable members of society such as low-income migrant workers, the elderly and the unemployed.

Pyramid schemes often involve the right to sell a product or financial plan. An investor will pay a recruiter a fee to be allowed to sell the item and that money flows “up” the pyramid at the expense of those lower down.

Zhou Qiang, Chief Justice and President of the Supreme People’s Court, used his report to the annual parliamentary sessions at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday to announce that more ways and means would be found to tackle financial crime.

The appendix of Zhou’s report disclosed the sharp rise in criminal hearings involving pyramid scams, although he did not state the total number of trials for this offence.