The First Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing Municipality has opened hearings in a fundraising fraud case against Ezubao, an online peer-to-peer (P2P) broker which is alleged to have illegally collected more than 50 billion yuan (7.25 billion US dollars) from members of the public between 2014 and 2015.         

Ding Ning, the chairman of Yucheng Global, the parent company of Ezubao was charged with fundraising fraud along with nine other suspects. And co-founder Wang Zhihuan and 15 others were accused of illegally absorbing public deposits.

Ezubao is suspected of using fake information on its company website to attract more than 900,000 investors, who funded non-existent projects with a promise of higher returns than bank interest. 

The P2P platform had been in operation for 18 months when it was shut down by police in 2015, after conducting transactions involving 70 billion yuan (10.1 billion US dollars). Twenty-one people were arrested after weeks of police investigations.  

China has increasingly strengthened efforts to maintain the country’s financial security.

On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that financial security is an important part of national security and a key foundation for the stable and healthy development of the economy. 

President Xi vowed to deepen reforms to improve the financial sector's competitiveness and capacity for risk resistance and sustainable development. The country must strengthen risk prevention and intensify supervision in order to avoid neglecting any risk or hidden trouble.

"Accurate judgement of potential financial risks serves as a precondition for maintaining financial security," Xi said.

On October 13, 2016, the State Council of China issued a policy document pledging to improve supervision of the online finance market, including P2P platforms, to reduce risks and support healthy development of the sector.