One of those Chinese loan sharks — who collectively hold at least $470 billion — was operating a massize ponzi scheme worth up to $1 billion, according to Caixin Century Magazine (via @chinahearsay).
The lender, a Mongolian woman named Tuya, had worked with three clerks at Bank of China. She would solicit deposits for the bank, and in exchange they would let her use the money for speculative investments in property and mines.
Their scheme unraveled when the bank noticed money missing from over 40 savings accounts and promptly fired the three clerks.
Tuya and the clerks responded by kidnapping the wife of the local branch chief and demanding $31 million plus the reinstatement of the clerks.
When police rescued the wife, everything came undone.
This all took place near the famous Chinese ghost city of Ordos, which is presumably the kind of thing Tuya was investing in. How much of the underground banking system is this shady?
