She smiled brightly at me and said, "Thank you. I also feel that I am very lucky, not because of misdiagnosis, but because I understood it relatively early. It seems that God is very fair to each of us. In fact, it is unfair to us.

It’s just us. Haha! Don’t tell me... have you ordered anything?”

I smiled and shook my head and said, "Not yet. We'll talk about it when you get here."

She smiled and said: "I eat relatively lightly now, so let's order separately and order what we like."

After we ordered our own dishes, she asked me: "Tell me, what's the matter?"

So I briefly told her about the fact that many people in Shangjiang City participated in the fund-raising. Finally, I said: "What I am most worried about now is what if the capital chain of this company is broken, like this

company, do you know their situation?”

She said: "This issue is more complicated. There are many situations like this across the country, but I will definitely not make such an investment. With such high interest, unless the company is selling drugs or doing arms business

Otherwise, how could we afford such a huge return on capital? Anyway, I, the bank president, don’t believe it.”

I smiled bitterly and said: "I don't believe it either. Then, investment certificates, futures, etc., as well as real estate, etc., should also be able to have such a big return."

She nodded and said: "That's why I said this matter is more complicated. It is true that some companies now absorb private funds and then invest in futures, gold, real estate, etc. Because of this, there is no capital chain for the time being.

Fracture situation. But you should know that any investment has risks. The greater the return, the greater the risk. This is the law of economics."

I asked her: "Then you mean that it is inevitable that the capital chain will be broken in the future and people's investment will be lost?"

She nodded and said: "Our state-owned banks still have a lot of policy support. If we didn't have so many mortgage users as our main source of income, it would be very difficult for us to operate. These fund-raising companies have such high returns, and there is no state

Policy support will inevitably cause problems in the future. In fact, there have been many incidents of absorbing private funds in this way and eventually collapsing. This has happened in many countries around the world. This method is also very simple and easy to use.

It uses high interest and high returns to attract private funds, and it can be cashed out in the early stage. This is also the fundamental reason why more and more people are involved in it."

Although I didn't know much about the situation she was talking about, I could imagine it completely. I nodded and immediately asked her: "So, how can we control the risks involved here? Or, what if?

How can we minimize the losses suffered by ordinary people in the future?"

She smiled bitterly and shook her head: "There is no way. Unless we arrest those who engage in fund-raising now. But it is difficult to define such a thing as a crime, unless our country can formulate corresponding legal provisions in the future."

I asked her again: "Then you mean that this method is legal?"

She immediately shook her head and said: "No, it must be illegal. Illegal fund-raising crimes like this are process crimes. They are crimes that gradually appear during the operation process. For example, the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits needs to reach a certain amount.

It constitutes a crime. The characteristics of this kind of process crime make it highly concealed and difficult for the public security organs to detect. In fact, any financial products you plan to develop are similar to this, and they are all taking advantage of policy loopholes."

I disagreed, "How can these two situations be the same? We are acting as a government. No matter where our government is, although some people say that if the capital chain is really broken, the government will shirk its responsibility, but I don't think so.

I believe that the government will definitely not shirk its responsibilities and will definitely find a way to prevent the people from suffering losses. Maybe the promised interest will not be obtained, but the principal will definitely be safe. But the fund-raising of private enterprises like this is different.

, they will probably donate money and run away after problems arise. Do you think so?”

She smiled and said: "Yes, the government has to pay attention to its image after all. In fact, these people who engage in illegal fund-raising know the gaps in the law very well, and it is often easy to avoid actual legal risks in the early stages of the project. Once the government becomes aware of it, it will

They have already obtained what they got, and the main person in charge has already escaped. Another relatively hidden feature of illegal fund-raising is the planning of the return cycle. Generally speaking, they have carefully designed the return cycle, and the average return is

From a few months to three years. The reason for doing this is to create idols. Create a few examples that have already made a fortune, and then publicize them to deceive more people."

My head was spinning, "What should we do? Should we just sit back and do nothing?"

She said with a wry smile: "There are too many legal gaps in our country. Only after a few big events happen, we will think of improving the relevant legal provisions. As I said before, this situation occurs all over the world.

This has happened once, and although many scams have been exposed, there are still endless numbers of people who have been fooled later, and the methods of deceiving people are similar..."

Immediately, she told me about the Ponzi scheme, the largest scam in the world in the 20th century.

Ponzi scheme is one of the oldest and most common investment frauds. It is a variant of pyramid scheme. Many illegal pyramid schemes use this trick to amass money. This deception was invented by a speculator named Charles Ponzi.

It refers to the deceptive behavior of defrauding investors from investing with the promise of high return on capital, and then using the investments of subsequent investors to repay earlier investors.

Charles Ponzi was an Italian who immigrated to the United States in 1903. He worked various jobs in the United States, including as a painter, and wanted to make a fortune. He had been imprisoned for forgery in Canada and in Atlanta, United States.

He was imprisoned for human smuggling. After more than ten years of being inspired by the American dream of getting rich, Ponzi discovered that the fastest way to make money was finance. So, starting in 1919, Ponzi hid his history and came to Boston.

, designed an investment plan and sold it to the American public.

This investment plan sounds very simple. It is to invest in something and obtain high returns. However, Ponzi deliberately made this plan very complicated so that ordinary people could not understand it. In 1919, for the first time

The world war had just ended, and the world economic system was in chaos. Ponzi took advantage of this chaos. He claimed that he could make money by buying some kind of European postal notes and selling them to the United States. Due to factors such as policies, exchange rates, etc., countries

, many economic behaviors are generally not easy for ordinary people to understand. In fact, as long as you understand a little financial knowledge, experts will point out that it is impossible to make money in this way. However, on the one hand, Ponzi made mysteries in finance, and on the other hand, he set up

As a huge bait, he claimed that all investments can get a 50% return within forty-five days. Moreover, he also gave people evidence that seeing is believing: the first batch of investors were indeed stipulating

Within a short period of time, the returns promised by Ponzi were obtained. As a result, subsequent investors followed suit in large numbers.

Within a year or so, almost 40,000 Boston citizens, like fools, became investors in Ponzi's money-making scheme, and most of them were poor people with dreams of getting rich. Ponzi received a total of about 15 million U.S. dollars.

A small amount of investment, with an average investment of several hundred dollars per person. At that time, Ponzi was called by some ignorant Americans as one of the three greatest Italians, along with Columbus, who discovered the American continent, and Marconi, the inventor of electric wires.

Because he discovered money just like Columbus discovered the New World. Ponzi lived in a villa with twenty rooms, bought more than a hundred expensive suits, paired with special leather shoes, and owned dozens of gold-encrusted crutches.

He also bought countless expensive jewelry for his lover, and even his pipe was inlaid with diamonds. When a financial expert exposed Ponzi's investment fraud, Ponzi also published an article in the newspaper to refute the financial expert, saying what did the financial expert say?

Don't even understand.

In August 1920, Ponzi went bankrupt. The money he received, according to his promise, could buy hundreds of millions of European postal notes. In fact, he only sold two. After that, the Ponzi scam became a

A technical term that means using the money of later investors to repay previous investors. Ponzi was sentenced to five years in prison. After he was released from prison, he did several similar crimes, so he served a longer sentence.

Prison. In 1934, he was deported back to Italy. He tried to deceive Mussolini again, but failed. In 1949, Ponzi died in a charity hall in Brazil. When he died, this Ponzi

Identity document of the inventor of the scam.

In less than a hundred years since Ponzi, various Ponzi scams have emerged one after another around the world.

Speaking of this, she said with a smile: "Although various Ponzi schemes are diverse and ever-changing, they essentially all have the same common characteristics inherited from the ancestor Ponzi. The first is low risk and high return.

Characteristics of investment rules. As we all know, risk and return are proportional to the iron law of investment. Ponzi schemes often do the opposite. Scammers often attract investors who do not know the truth with higher rates of return and never emphasize the risks of investment.

Factors. The rates of return for various cases may vary. Some are ridiculously high. For example, the investment promised by Ponzi can obtain a 50% return within forty-five days. Some are stable and extraordinary returns, but

In any case, scammers always try to design investment paths that are much higher than the average market return, without ever revealing or emphasizing the risk factors of investment. Second, the characteristic of tearing down the east wall and making up for the west wall is to make up for it. Due to the fundamental law

Realizing the promised return on investment, therefore the return on investment for old customers, can only be achieved by relying on the addition of new customers or other financing arrangements. This puts very high demands on the capital flow of Ponzi schemes. Therefore, scammers always try to

Expand the scope of customers and the scale of absorbing funds to obtain enough room for funds to be transferred and replenished. Most scammers never refuse the addition of new funds, because as the cake becomes bigger, not only will the benefits obtained be more considerable, but the capital chain will also be

The risk of rupture is greatly reduced, and the duration of the scam can be greatly extended. Third, the investment know-how is unknowable and non-replicable. Scammers try their best to exaggerate the mystery of investment, keep the investment know-how secret, and strive to create their own image of genius or expert.

.In fact, due to the lack of real investment and production support, scammers have no way to make money carefully, so trying to keep the investment mysterious and promoting the non-replicability of investment is one of their effective tactics to avoid doubts from the outside world.

1. A reporter from the "Boston Global Times" once wrote an article exposing Ponzi's scam, but Ponzi refuted it on the grounds that he did not understand financial investment. Fourth, the counter-cyclical characteristics of investment. The investment projects of the Ponzi scheme seem to last forever.

Regardless of the investment cycle, whether it is an industrial investment related to production or a financial investment related to market conditions, investment projects always seem to be guaranteed to make a profit. The fifth is the pyramid feature of the investor structure. Join first in order to pay

To achieve high returns for investors, Ponzi schemes must continue to develop and attract more and more investors to participate through inducement, persuasion, family ties, connections, etc., thus forming a pyramid-like investor structure. A few at the top

Insiders make profits by exploiting a large number of participants at the bottom of the tower and in the tower. By using a large number of friends, family and business partners to develop downlines, some people get commissions for successfully attracting investment, and downlines develop new downlines." It snowballs.

The style grows into a pyramid structure."

I said: "The situation you are talking about seems to be similar to a pyramid scheme."

She nodded, "That's true. After all, MLM is also a variant of Ponzi scheme."

I suddenly thought of something: if she talks so much to me, there must be a way to solve this problem, because I know her relatively well, and she usually doesn't talk so much nonsense.

So I asked her again: "You know how to solve this problem, right?"

She glanced at me and said, "Of course I know, but you can't do it."

I looked at her in surprise, "Oh? Why can't I do it?"

She smiled and said: "Don't say you can't do it, even Governor Huang can't do anything about it."

I was even more surprised, "Why?"

She said: "First, investors will not think they have been deceived until the scam is exposed. Second, in addition to ordinary people, many high-level officials participate in this kind of fund-raising. Think about it.

, many officials’ money comes from irregular sources. If they get returns in this way, doesn’t this explain the source of their wealth? This is actually a way of laundering money. Third, you have to solve this matter

, the only way is to expose the scam now. It’s easy to expose the scam. Just check the company’s operating conditions and find out the source of its profits. This is not difficult, because you will soon understand it after one investigation.

This company is doing the business of tearing down one wall to make up for the other. It must be like this. But have you ever thought about it? If you go to check and find the problem, and then immediately freeze the company's account, this will still make people feel uncomfortable.

Those who invested later suffered huge losses. Of course, such a result can indeed minimize the losses of investors. But have you ever thought about it? How many people will you offend by doing this? People who offend this company will even be punished by them

Crazy revenge is inevitable. Secondly, those investors will also hate you, because they do not think that you helped them, but will think that you destroyed their dream of making a fortune. Also, those investors in this company will

The company's investment officials will also be exposed. In this case, you will become the target of public criticism. The final result is that you will be taken down every minute for various reasons. Feng Xiao, are you willing to do such a thing? You

Do you dare to do such a thing?"

I was stunned because I didn't expect such a small thing to involve so many and complicated issues.

Chang Bailing said it very clearly. If I really want to expose this matter, then the next situation will be unpredictable. My political life will end because of this. This is not the biggest risk. The biggest risk is that I

My safety and that of my family.

When Chang Bailing saw that I was silent, she immediately sighed and said: "Feng Xiao, do you know why I am still willing to see you and tell you this? The reason is simple: I am not a romantic person. Although I have realized it now

I should never have made such a mistake with you, but after all, you are the second man in my life. After all, you have given me such happiness. I remember all this. But let me tell you, this

It's best to end this matter here. Don't tell anyone that you came to me to ask about this matter. As people at our level, we must take care of such things when we know about it. This is an organizational matter.

It is also the people who ask us to do this. But can we take care of it? No, because we dare not take care of it, and we cannot take care of it. But once someone knows that we clearly understand the consequences of this matter but do not take care of it, then
To be continued...