Shandong Financial Company’s Bankruptcy Case: Boss Flees to the United States, Victims Unable to Hold Accountable

Recent reports have exposed a financial fraud case involving approximately 28 billion yuan at Shandong Jianghai Group, sparking widespread attention. The chairman of the group, An Zhibin, and his wife, Zhou Chunwei, fled to the United States after the incident came to light. Victims are unable to recover their hard-earned money and are calling on authorities to investigate and recover the funds lost due to “contract fraud” to uphold their legal rights.

Jianghai Group is a financial company that has long received support from the Shandong provincial government, holding legitimate qualifications and operating for 15 years with governmental backing. The company promised high returns to the public, attracting a large number of investors who put their funds into the so-called projects of the company. The group is suspected of contract fraud, with the case exploding last August due to the breakdown of its financial chain.

In mid-August 2024, investors in several areas reported that Jianghai Group’s financial products could not be redeemed, and the owner, An Zhibin, had fled abroad with the funds. Investors found out that the couple had entered the United States last year.

After An Zhibin (formerly An Zhicheng) fled with the funds, investors from many cities in Shandong Province were affected, including Jinan, Zibo, Liaocheng, Dongying, Zaozhuang, Weifang, Qingzhou, Zhucheng, Anqiu, and Zouping.

According to Radio Free Asia, in recent days, many P2P investors in Shandong revealed that the group had set up over 130 companies in 15 prefecture-level cities in the province and cooperated with local governments to establish financial service and investment platforms, such as Weifang Industry & Finance Company, Dezhou Industry & Finance Company, Jinan Industry & Finance Company, and Qingdao Industry & Finance Company, among others.

On March 26, Ms. Zhang, a victim, stated that due to the government’s endorsement, which lent it legitimacy, the government’s support gave it a legal veneer. Jianghai Group defrauded hundreds of thousands of people in Shandong Province of over 20 billion yuan. Since the explosion last year, they have been fighting for their rights, going to Beijing, Shandong (government departments), but the local police have been very harsh in suppressing the people, employing monitoring, seizure, detention, and preventing them from speaking up, but the issue has not been resolved.

She mentioned that the company operated for 16 years, and after the explosion in August last year, the Shandong provincial government not only failed to actively address the matter but continued to detain, summon, and arrest the people. Victims plan to organize a large-scale rights protection action, with thousands of people preparing to go to Jinan, sit-in and fast outside the Shandong Provincial Party Committee office.

Ms. Zhang also noted that the government had called on the public to help small and medium-sized enterprises overcome difficulties by providing funding with higher interest rates than bank deposits and signing contracts. However, after Jianghai Group’s explosion, the chairman of the group, An Zhibin, and his wife, Zhou Chunwei, were escorted to the United States by local officials to evade legal consequences. “After the explosion, the leaders of the group, An Zhibin and Zhou Chunwei, were escorted by the government to hide in the United States. Now, when the people demand money from the government, they face severe police oppression, using various means.”

Another resident of Binzhou, Ms. Zhang, stated, “This company has six subsidiaries specializing in emergency lending operations, with various municipal investment companies signing cooperation agreements and investing in them. Our monthly interest rates sometimes reached eight percent but sometimes only one cent. In the spring of 2024, they held seminars in various places, claiming to cooperate with the government to handle emergency lending operations.”

Emergency lending operations involve providing short-term funding for small and medium-sized enterprises, and institutions must lend with their own funds and cannot raise funds from the public.

She also said, “In our county, there are over a hundred salespersons involved, affecting nearly eight hundred households invested in the company. After the explosion, many executives and salespersons escaped, assets were transferred, and they prevented us from visiting (seeking justice).”

Ms. Zhang revealed that she had invested a total of five million yuan in Jianghai Group but had lost everything. She also disclosed that many people in Binzhou chose to end their lives due to hopelessness: “Some jumped off buildings, some died of depression. I talked to a big sister in Liaocheng, and in the past two or three months, several people in their sixties have passed away due to this incident. Many people couldn’t handle this blow. I cried every day when I first encountered this, cried for three months straight, my eyes were full of blood vessels, almost blinded. My child…(cries) my child doesn’t even have money for marriage, can’t even afford a house. This is our retirement money, accumulated by me and my spouse through hard work after being laid off in the 1990s, all gone…”

According to the “Wealth Management Blackboard Report,” Jianghai Group and its affiliated companies amounted to hundreds, accumulating public deposits of hundreds of billions of yuan, with over a thousand financial advisors under them.

Victims questioned why the flow of funds from Jianghai Group was not publicly disclosed. In response, Captain Wan of the Economic Investigation Team of Dongying Public Security Bureau told the “Wealth Management Blackboard Report,” “During the investigation stage of the case, details will not be made public to the general public.”