According to Xinhua News Agency, there are celebrities starring in the film, and the box office is expected to be 700 million yuan. An investment of 1.2 million yuan can earn up to 4 million yuan... What sounds like such an attractive film investment project is actually a scam. More than 3,000 people across the country have been fooled, and are involved in the case. The amount is more than 650 million yuan.
Lanzhou police recently publicly solicited clues for a film and television investment fraud case involving 4 companies and 12 movies. This new type of fraud is very concealed, and many victims are still kept in the dark even after being deceived. The reporter conducted an investigation and uncovered the truth about the scam.
There were more than 3,000 victims, and the amount involved was more than 650 million yuan.
A few days ago, the Lanzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate and the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly issued a notice to publicly solicit clues for a film and television investment fraud case. The case involves a total of 4 companies and 12 movies, 5 of which have been released.
In 2022, Lanzhou police detected a film and television investment fraud case headed by Li Moumou. The criminal gang carefully designed and arranged rhetoric to attract investors to invest in stocks, and then exaggerated the film production costs and expected box office revenue to guide investors to buy the film's "profit share"; they only used a small part of the amount to pay the film producer for the purchase Share, most of the funds are dispersed into multiple bank accounts for criminals to squander. With the cooperation of public security agencies in many places, the
task force destroyed multiple dens in Beijing, Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places, and seized a large number of computers, mobile phones, false contracts and scripts on site. All major criminal suspects involved in this case have been arrested. Caught and brought to justice.
At present, the case has been transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution, and 45 people have been transferred for review and prosecution. More than 3,000 victims have been identified across the country, and the amount involved in the case is more than 650 million yuan.
Pang Jie, a police officer from the Third Brigade of the Criminal Police Detachment of Lanzhou Public Security Bureau, said that the fraud gang had cross-shareholdings in four companies and began committing fraud as early as 2019. The maximum amount defrauded of the victim reached more than 7 million yuan.
In 2022, Lanzhou police issued a notice soliciting clues on the case for the first time. Since the victims are spread all over the country and there are so many of them, in order to effectively and accurately accuse the crime and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the victims, the police, together with the procuratorate, once again solicited clues about the gang's illegal crimes from the society in January this year.
In 2022, investigators escorted the suspect back to Lanzhou. (Photo courtesy of Lanzhou Public Security Bureau)
Revealing the Movie Investment Fraud Routine
According to the police, this case is a fraud case involving new business formats, new fields, and new methods, and is highly deceptive.
According to the criminal suspect Li Moumou, they hired a promotion company to attract victims. The promotion company sent people to act as "mentors" who professionally recommended stocks in various stock investment WeChat groups and QQ groups; the stocks they recommended , will rise the next day, and some will rise for several days in a row, in order to gain the trust of the victims. In the later period of
, the "mentor" used the excuse that the stock market was down, the income was reduced, and the risks were increasing, and guided him to invest in film projects. The "mentor" claims to have connections in the film and television industry and will earn several times the profit after the film is released, while exaggerating the production costs of the film. In order to gain trust, the "instructor" led the students to Beijing, nominally to visit large domestic film and television companies, but in fact only allowed some peripheral photos to be taken.
"The original investment in a movie was 40 million yuan, and the suspect bought part of the share; but when he signed the agreement with the victim, he exaggerated the total investment several times and defrauded him in this way." Pang Jie said.
Li Moumou explained that taking a certain movie as an example, his Eight Millimeters Culture Company invested 22.1 million yuan and obtained 45% of the share. When promoting to investors, he claimed that the total investment in the film was 220 million yuan and raised 70 million yuan from 670 investors; a small part of the fraudulent amount was used to pay the film producer to purchase shares, and the remaining amount was used for fraud Operational and personal extravagance.
Ms. Lin from Lanzhou is a victim. She invested 1.2 million yuan in a movie. "At that time, they said that with a star starring, the box office was expected to be 700 million yuan. If the movie box office could reach 700 million yuan, the revenue would reach 4 million yuan. But after the movie was released, the box office was less than one million yuan."
Compared with common fraud cases, this case is more confusing and deceptive - the film and television projects invested by the victim actually exist, and many of them have been released; the film and television companies held by the fraud gang are also formally established The contract signed by the company with the film producer is also true and valid; however, in the agreement signed with the investor, the alleged investment amount far exceeds the actual investment amount of the film, so it is suspected of fraud.
He Xiaodong, deputy director of the Chengguan Branch of the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, introduced , this kind of fraud crime is difficult for the public to identify. The victims think it is an investment failure, and there are few people who report the crime. The number of people who take the initiative to report the crime to the public security organs nationwide is less than 100.
Beware of the traps hidden in the film industry
He Xiaodong introduced, In the next step, the police will continue to increase the intensity of fund recovery, dig deep into the properties and various accounts in the name of criminal suspects, and investigate large amounts of suspicious funds, especially large amounts of cash withdrawals one by one.
Reporters checked the China Judgment Documents Network and found that film investments have been repeatedly illegal. Few criminals take advantage of it. In Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, some criminals introduced a false "Bigao Film and Television" investment project in a WeChat group, luring victims with high profits to download the BiGao Film and Television app, and recharge to purchase movie copyrights set in the app. False investment and financial products allow victims to obtain high profits in the short term, and deceive the victims to continue to recharge; and then close the app so that the victims cannot log in to the app and cannot transfer or withdraw money.
Li Wenbo, a lawyer at Shaanxi Wei Neng Law Firm, said that some institutions or individuals, deliberately taking advantage of the general public's unfamiliarity with the production, distribution and copyright trading operations of cultural and creative products, conducting false propaganda, concealing the share and consideration of the true transaction target, attracting inexperienced investors, and raising large amounts of funds. Their behavior is suspected of constituting The crime of fraud.
Chen Weizhong, a producer in the film and television industry, said that criminal gangs cheated in the name of buying and selling movie shares, which not only caused a large number of people to suffer, but also had a negative impact on the healthy development of the film market.
Chen Weizhong said that film investment is a high-risk, In high-return industries, laws and regulations should be further improved to regulate film investment behavior, especially the information disclosure mechanism. Producers should disclose their qualifications and real investment amounts, so that investors can clearly understand the investment terms and details, and reduce investment risks to Minimum.
Dong Gaosheng, a lawyer at Beijing Xinnuo Law Firm, suggested that ordinary investors should increase their risk awareness and not trust the investment advice of strangers on the Internet; they should invest cautiously in projects with which they are unfamiliar and have complex legal relationships to avoid being deceived. .
Xinhua News Agency reporters Liang Jun, Hu Weijie
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