China's largest online finance business, Ezubao, is accused of fraud and a number of its employees have been arrested, the Associated Press reports.
Chinese authorities have since begun making arrests, taking the founder of the company, along with 20 others, into custody. The company is accused of swindling 900,000 investors out of nearly $7.6 billion.
News of these arrests surfaced Sunday night when Chinese media outlets began airing confessions from two of the company's former employees, according to USA Today.
The company, which became a booming success in only 18 months, had been allegedly evading regulation by Chinese authorities since its conception. This allowed so many investors to fall victim to the company's scams.
Ezubao not only began promising investors that money borrowed from them would be returned, but that they would be paid back with interest between 9 and 14.6 percent. A company executive later told police that 95 percent of these supposed investor borrowers were created by the company itself.
The official investigation began on Dec. 8 when police began to notice suspicious activity by the company, Bloomberg reports. It became apparent that company chiefs were hiding funds, while also destroying any evidence that could make them culpable, police allege.
The company has since been shut down by police.
