The head of a Chinese exchange found himself in a tight spot over the weekend, when an angry mob of investors marched over to the hotel he was staying at, stuffed him into a car and brought him to the police station.
Shan Jiuliang is the founder of Fanya Metals Exchange, which for months has had investors pounding on its doors demanding their money back.
Fed up with the perceived inaction, a mob of "hundreds" surrounded a luxury hotel at dawn on Saturday in Shanghai where Shan was staying. When the executive tried to leave, they manhandled him into a car and drove him to the police, reports the FT.
Shan has since been released without charge.
The bone of contention for investors is one of Fanya's financial products, Ri Jin Bao. It was sold with the promise of the right to withdraw funds at any time, but Fanya froze those funds in April when the bourse ran into cash problems, says Xinhua. (Link in Chinese)
An estimated 40 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion) from 220,000 Chinese investors is now being held.
This triggered a protest in July with 800 angry investors demonstrating outside Fanya's headquarters in Kunming. Several days after, another 200 investors in Shanghai gathered to demand their money back from officials, reports Quartz.
A few days after the protests, Fanya said it would buy back 5 billion yuan (US$787 million) worth of investments with money from partners. It's been silent on the rest of the money so far.