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text: han yijia

with a report from the people's procuratorate of luohu district, shenzhen, a "ponzi scheme" that has lasted for more than ten years has finally been revealed.

on september 13, the people's procuratorate of luohu district, shenzhen city announced that the case of criminal suspects li jinfeng, lu jinxiu, duan lili, li fang, jiang mei, and xie yanmei on suspicion of illegally absorbing public deposits has been handled by the shenzhen municipal public security bureau. the luohu branch transferred the case to our court for review and prosecution.”

li jinfeng was the founder of guangdong aimei beauty cosmetics group co., ltd., and founded a number of "aimei" companies. at the same time, he began to serve as a director of the listed company changyao holdings in september 2022. after serving for one and a half years, li jinfeng , resigning in march 2024.

she has successively served as member of the 8th standing committee of the shenzhen federation of industry and commerce (general chamber of commerce), deputy director of the women entrepreneurs working committee of the luohu district federation of industry and commerce, executive vice president of the shenzhen federation of commerce, president of the shenzhen beauty industry development promotion association, and china enterprise evaluation association executive director... li jinfeng had many titles and "halo", but when the bubble of the scam was burst, all that was left was devastation.

"ponzi scheme"

according to the police description, such a huge scam by the "emmy department" was mainly implemented through financial fraud of "tearing down the east wall to pay for the west wall".

the people's procuratorate of luohu district, shenzhen stated that the beauty industry segment of aimi group absorbs funds through the "advance deposit", "employee benefits" and "equity sale" models. as the main person in charge of amy group, li jinfeng is the initiator and decision-maker of the "advance deposits", "employee benefits" and "equity sale" business models, and directly organizes and directs the implementation of operations.

emmy group and its affiliated companies rely on beauty series products to recruit unspecified individual beauty shop operators or non-beauty shop operators through public promotions at beauty expos, organizing section promotion meetings, annual meetings, boss meetings, dinner parties, and wechat public accounts. join amy company and become a store franchisee.

li jinfeng, lu jinxiu, duan lili, li fang, jiang mei, xie yanmei and other group executives launched the "million loan plan", "collective supply payment annual plan" and "partner payment collection plan" to franchisees, partners and group company employees "advance deposit" investment projects such as "employee investment welfare project" have a fixed period ranging from three months to two years, and it is agreed that the unused portion of the advance deposit will be withdrawn at a fixed interest rate, with an annualized rate of return between 28% and 36%. during this period, investors did not take delivery of goods, but obtained interest based on fixed returns through advance deposits.

take the “collective loan” model as an example. according to activists who were defrauded on the internet, the so-called "collective loan" means that aimee group allows its employees and partners to deposit funds in aimee group and provide corresponding interest payments on a regular basis. by depositing funds through "collective loan", the interest rate ranges from 7% for three months to as high as 90% in the later period, and the interest is returned regularly. this operation can be said to be a typical "ponzi scheme" with empty hands and white wolves. some rights defenders said that aimi's institutions would even encourage employees and partners to use credit card cash out, jd.com ious, etc. to borrow funds to participate in this "scam."

not only that, the "collective loan" model also formulates a "points system" rule. every time a new user invests funds, the leader will receive corresponding points. when the points accumulate to a certain level, aimei group will directly give “return gifts” such as cars. since amy group and its affiliated companies have not obtained a financial license, they have borrowed "advance deposits" and other models to absorb funds from unspecified groups, which was determined to be an illegal act of absorbing deposits from the public.

in a tweet on the public account of aimei's affiliated company, combimax, a supplier once said, "during our cooperation with aimei, we settled the payment in the first month. subsequently, our performance increased every month. although our cooperation has only been settled in the first month, and so far more than 1 million of the payment has not been settled. but our company has always believed in amy, and we have never doubted amy.”

through endless lending models, li jinfeng and the "emmy" companies behind him have made money crazily. according to incomplete statistics, the amount involved reaches tens of billions of yuan.

it was not until 2022 that the epidemic and the market downturn made the aimei group's model of extracting funds no longer sustainable. each aimi group company had problems with its capital chain, and its employees were faced with the inability to pay wages and refund advance payments. problems such as these have aroused the vigilance of relevant personnel. in 2022, with the efforts of many rights defenders, the "aimee case" was officially filed at the luohu branch of shenzhen public security bureau.

"diversified industries"

there is no doubt that li jinfeng is a person who is very good at "drawing cakes", including the so-called diversified industries of the "emmy department".

initially, li jinfeng also started from a cosmetics company, and established hong kong amy international cosmetics co., ltd. in 2007. in 2010, emmy international established the "crown store manager talent output model". store managers trained by aimee entered beauty stores of all sizes across the country. using this as a contact point, aimee group started its own "cash-out model."

on august 7, 2017, li jinfeng registered and established guangdong aimei beauty cosmetics group co., ltd., and li jinfeng was the actual controller of the company. but in 2020, li jinfeng resigned as director of guangzhou amy. according to data released in 2018, amy had more than 8,000 physical beauty salons, more than 10,000 daily chemical counters, and 100,000 media advertising terminals across the country. it had nearly a thousand direct employees and tens of thousands of franchise store employees. , the market covers the five major cities of shenzhen, chengdu, guangzhou, shanghai and beijing.

after the emmy group raised its "first pot of gold" by illegally collecting deposits, it began to develop a wide range of different businesses. it is understood that aimi group is divided into five sectors: beauty industry, medical beauty, catering, beauty training, and digital technology. in order to facilitate the overall coordination of various business sectors, li jinfeng established zhenzhi meikang technology group co., ltd. as the top group company on april 12, 2017, to coordinate and manage all sector companies of the group through vertical management of personnel and finance. li jinfeng actually controls a total of 61 companies through employees holding shares or acting as legal persons, and actually operates 28 companies.

these "le méridien" companies involve all walks of life. the catering industry includes le méridien royal dining and amour desserts; the internet business includes companies such as kangmei jishi and meiyu zhenpin; and the education industry includes le méridien university and bay area global. institutions such as university village, and even the decoration industry, amy group has also established two financial companies, namely luluo financial services and huazi capital. according to china business news, according to investors and former employees, luluo financial services (luluo financial services) shenzhen luluoyuan digital technology co., ltd.) is mainly engaged in loan business, and huazi capital (shenzhen huazi capital management co., ltd.) is engaged in private equity investments.

nowadays, luluo financial services has been listed as a person subject to execution for dishonesty and restricted high-consumption enterprises. zhenzhi meikang technology’s 72% stake in luluo financial services has been frozen. huazi capital is still operating normally.

it is worth noting that li jinfeng does not hold any position in most of these more than 60 companies. instead, he serves as the actual controller of these "subsidiaries" through the relevant managers of the "aimei department". therefore, when inquiring about the related corporate context of aimei group, many companies were excluded, but the interest relationship has closely linked these subsidiaries.

among the many "cakes" painted by li jinfeng, there is also listing. although aimei group failed to successfully go public, li jinfeng reached a strategic cooperation with kangyue technology (the predecessor of changyao holdings) in 2021, and eventually became one of the directors of changyao holdings, and was also crowned a "listed company director" title.

on march 15, 2024, li jinfeng resigned from changyao holdings. changyao holdings mentioned in the announcement that as of the disclosure date of this announcement, ms. li jinfeng did not hold the company's shares.

before li jinfeng resigned, luo ming, director and general manager of changyao holdings, resigned in january, and ning luhong, director and deputy general manager, resigned in may. in september 2023, li jinfeng, luo ming, and ning luhong were issued warning letters by the shandong securities regulatory bureau for failing to promptly disclose the company's major litigation and arbitration matters and major overdue debts as required.

on the official website of emmy group, it clearly states the company's development philosophy: "the wisdom of hundreds of millions of people creates billions of wealth; innovation is endless, and wealth is shared." now, it seems to have become an ironic scam.