There are many tricks involved, with a total amount of 490 million involved! Shanghai cracked a major film and television investment fraud case. Film | Investors | Investment
Under the unified deployment of the Ministry of Public Security, recently, the Economic Investigation Corps of Shanghai Public Security Bureau led the Pudong and Yangpu Public Security Branches to successfully destroy an industrial chain of film and television investment contract fraud crime that integrates multiple links such as publicity and diversion, intermediary agency, contract fraud, etc., and captured 44 suspect, involving more than 490 million yuan.
Layered up layers of film and television investment scams
In November 2022, the Shanghai police received a report from a citizen to Mr. Xiang: at the end of 2021, he accidentally saw a movie investment advertisement online and contacted customer service by phone. According to customer service, the company is a joint producer of multiple popular films to be released, and Mr. Xiang can participate in project investment dividends before the films are released. The customer service also provided a detailed introduction to the film production cost, expected box office, and investment project situation to Mr. Xiang, claiming that the investment funds of investors are protected, and even if the actual box office does not meet expectations, it will not affect the settlement of investment returns.
Mr. Xiang believed it to be true and invested 1.1 million yuan in three film projects through the company. After three films were released one after another, Mr. Xiang found that these films had good box office earnings. But Mr. Xiang, who was waiting for dividends, did not receive a penny until the deadline stipulated in the contract. He tried to contact customer service to demand an explanation, but found that the other party had already blacklisted him. He realized that he had been deceived and reported the case to the police.
The preliminary investigation by the police found that there were many investors with similar experiences to Mr. Xiang, and it was determined that there may be economic crimes committed under the guise of film and television investment. The investigation was immediately initiated.
After investigation, the criminal gang headed by suspect Chen, in order to seek illegal interests, has registered or actually controlled more than ten cultural communication and film and television companies, elaborately designed and arranged scripts, laid fraud routines layer upon layer, and lured investors into investment through various modes. The gang claimed to be the producer or co producer of multiple popular films without obtaining a real share of the film project, luring investors who did not know the truth into signing film and television investment agreements and selling false shares of income rights; Or, after purchasing a small amount of film project shares from the production party, they may repeatedly sell their shares and promise high box office profits in the future, knowing that the agreement stipulates that they cannot be transferred.
Intermediary agent network drainage draws high commissions
Further investigation by the police found that in order to achieve rapid traffic diversion, Chen's gang also recruited multiple intermediary agents such as You nationwide, attracting investors through advertising website promotion, short video live streaming introduction, random phone calls, blind addition of social media friends, and other methods. They also used marketing tactics such as "risk-free", "low threshold", and "high return" to gain trust and attract investors to Chen's gang.
Chen's gang will also organize investors to visit the company on site, display forged film project proposals, copyright agreements signed with the producers, transfer vouchers, and other materials, to lure investors into signing investment agreements and paying investment funds. After the incident, Chen's gang paid commissions ranging from 30% to 60% of the investment funds to You and others as compensation.
Criminal gangs have fabricated a large number of false documents such as equity transfer agreements
Afterwards, in order to avoid fulfilling the contract, Chen's gang would frequently change their contact information, company entity, legal representative, business location, etc., or falsely claim that "additional investment costs were added during the film promotion process, resulting in much lower than expected profit sharing" to deceive investors, and even directly "blackmail" investors.
As of the incident, the criminal gang has fraudulently obtained investment funds of over 490 million yuan from investors, involving 60 films. The money involved in the case was mostly used to pay for agent rebates and personal extravagance, except for a small amount used to purchase movie shares and pay investor refunds.
On March 23 this year, the Shanghai police concentrated their efforts in five provinces and cities across the country, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Hubei, to cut off this black and gray industry chain in one fell swoop. At present, suspect Chen and others have been arrested by the public security organ in accordance with the law for suspected contract fraud, and the rest of suspect have been released on bail pending trial in accordance with the law. The case is under further investigation.
