China to tighten crackdown on illegal fundraising

BEIJING - China will further crack down on illegal fundraising after handling 4,293 cases concerning this crime since 2011, a senior legal official said on Friday.

A total of 4,170 such criminals have been sentenced to penalties in this period, with 34.75 percent receiving five years or more in jail or the death penalty, said Miao Youshui, deputy chief judge of the criminal trial division of the supreme court, at a press conference on the policing of illegal fundraising.

Miao added that the rate of severe penalties for illegal fundraising is higher than that of other economic criminal cases, representing the country's determination to strictly curb illicit fundraising in accordance with laws.

According to Du Jinfu, head of the Inter-agency Anti-illegal Fund-raising Taskforce (IAFT), recent years have seen frequent cases of illegal fundraising in most cities.

They involved a number of industries, including agriculture, forestry, real estate, education and logistics, and extending to emerging areas such as technology, environmental protection and equity investment, said Du.

He added that private lending and usury are hot beds for illegal fundraising in some regions, with these practices bringing serious harm to social harmony and stability.

Liu Wenxi, deputy head of the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security, said that the amount of money concerned in these cases is on the rise.

Less than five percent of economic crimes in the time period covered by the data involved illegal fundraising, yet the amount of money involved in them constituted more than 10 percent of the economic crimes' total value, Liu said.

According to Du, the IAFT will carry out a national publicity campaign across China in May to fight against illegal fundraising, via TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, Internet and mobile communication, in order to educate people to keep away from such illegal activities.