Beijing - Shanghai's online finance association showed its member executives a taste of life behind bars on Tuesday as part of an effort to nip crime in the bud in a sector that has been dogged by scandal.
About 50 company representatives heard tales of regret told by jailed financial criminals on a one-day tour of Shanghai Qingpu prison, as part of a programme to “strike illegal fundraising fraud”, the association said on its website.
They were escorted by a deputy secretary-general of the city's online finance association and prison guards.
“After seeing former industry peers locked-up in jail for breaking their ethical bottom line, the participants all said they have learned a hard lesson,” the association said in the posting.
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Fraud has proliferated in China's loosely regulated online finance industry, led by the discovery in February of a $7.6 billion Ponzi scheme at peer-to-peer lender Ezubao, which cheated more than 900 000 investors, state media reported.
The government has responded aggressively with the State Council approving a one-year plan to clean up online finance, setting stricter rules for peer-to-peer platforms.
REUTERS