"Running Event": Alarm Clock of Implicit Fund-raising Loan of Agricultural Enterprises

The reporter interviewed in Hubei, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other places and found that small and micro agriculture-related enterprises, including self-employed and farmers' cooperatives, have increased their fund-raising and lending activities in various forms in recent years. After collecting savings, high-interest re-lending to others, due to the broken capital chain, the local boss "run away" or "lost contact" phenomenon, resulting in many members, farmers become the bottom of the risk.

Industry insiders and experts said that similar private financial activities currently have the characteristics of strong concealment and wide coverage, which need to be paid attention to.

The boss "ran away" after collecting the money.

Wuhan Xinzhou District Wangji Street Office is an aquaculture village, many farmers join Qunfa aquaculture cooperative. At the beginning of this year, Wang Qunfei, chairman of the cooperative, received a "feed advance payment" of 700000 yuan from members, of which his own 250000 yuan was handed over to Hubei Xiantao Xianfa Feed Co., Ltd. At the end of May, the feed company closed down and the boss "ran away", which once triggered farmers to petition.

During the interview, the reporter noticed that the money Wang Qunfei collected from the members was neither simply used for mutual assistance among the members, nor was it an ordinary "feed advance payment."

From the point of view of the contracts signed between cooperatives and enterprises, in addition to buying the corresponding amount of feed, the most important feature of "advance payment" is that the payers enjoy interest income to varying degrees. According to the different payment time, the "rebate" is divided into three grades: 1000 yuan in interest before January 31, and 800 yuan or 700 yuan before March 31 and April 15. At the same time, feed prices remain at the level at the time of payment and will not rise in peak season, and some even promise a certain amount of travel expenses.

Gao Guangming from Changgang Farm, Changgang Town, Echeng District, Ezhou City, Hubei Province, told reporters that he raised 3.23 million yuan from more than 170 members, plus 400000 yuan invested by his own family, totaling 3.63 million yuan to Xianfa Company. "during this period of time, every day, farmers come to ask for money and feed, and the threshold of the family has been broken."

According to the reporter's investigation, similar incidents have occurred to varying degrees in some places.

According to a source from the Intermediate Court of Xuchang City, Henan Province, in 2012 and 2013, the Xuchang Municipal Court handled more than 6000 private loan cases, 17 fund-raising fraud cases and 11 cases of illegal absorption of public deposits, more than in previous years. After combing, it is found that there are as many as 1611 private loan cases alone, involving more than 2800 rural residents and 158owners of small and micro businesses, in which rural small and micro enterprises fail to repay depositors because of their failure to recover loans at high interest after collecting deposits.

High interest rates become "bait"

The reporter found that the reason why some members choose to raise funds for cooperatives, in addition to enjoying preferential activities, it is more important to be tempted by high interest rates.

In March this year, Wang Liujun, a member of the Mass Development Cooperative, handed Wang Qunfei 80,000 yuan. He told reporters that feed prices have risen too fast and have been using the "prepayment model" to buy feed since 2001. "if you pay in advance, you can get a discount of about 300 yuan per ton, and you can get a little interest. Unexpectedly, the enterprise collapsed, and I don't know where to get the money back. "

Members of the relevant cooperatives in Guantao County said that after raising funds, they can set up cable television for free, and they can also get wheat or corn seeds for free, and save 10,000 yuan to give away seeds per mu of land. More importantly, the interest rate of the cooperative is high. According to the agreement, some local cooperatives raise ten thousand yuan with an annual interest of 1600 yuan.

Behind the temptation to offer high interest rates to members and farmers, most cooperatives, individual industrial and commercial households and other small and micro agriculture-related economies have hidden lending behavior, which is not small.

The reporter learned from an interview in Guolutan Township, Gushi County, Henan Province that in 2011, Liu Dongsheng, an agricultural broker in the township, "borrowed" from the villagers, and finally "borrowed" more than 5.5 million yuan from more than 110 villagers. In November 2013, Liu Dongsheng committed suicide because he was unable to recover the debt after refinancing. The villagers jointly sued Liu Dongsheng's son, and the case is currently under trial.

Villager Wang Benfang "lent" 120000 yuan to Liu Dongsheng on four occasions. She told reporters that Liu Dongsheng's interest on the loan is 720 yuan per year, which is much higher than the interest on the bank's current deposit. The reason why so many people lend money to Liu Dongsheng is that they like the high interest he offers.

A relevant staff member of the Henan Gushi County Court said that according to the previous investigation, Liu Dongsheng turned around to lend and eat interest rate spreads after "borrowing money."

He Xuesong, an associate professor at Henan Xinyang normal University, has previously done research on mutual financial assistance in rural areas. According to his analysis, the increase in fund-raising and lending activities in some rural areas and the frequent occurrence of "runaway incidents" are in fact the result of a combination of reasons. On the surface, farmers can't resist the temptation of high interest rates, but behind it is that agriculture-related enterprises are not used for their own development after "raising funds", but extend usury in order to "make a lot of money" in the short term. Due to the wide range of similar financial activities, strong concealment, in the vacuum zone of multi-supervision, it is easy to have problems.

Strengthen supervision and cure both the symptoms and root causes

Rao Yajun, president of the Guolutan Court of Gushi County Court, told reporters that as villagers resorted to the law to collect debts, court staff seized Liu Dongsheng's agricultural products purchase site in time, auctioned 1.2 million jin of kenaf, and froze Liu's relevant bank accounts. Due to the large number of personnel involved, the court is currently conducting a debt relationship investigation in order to start the payment work as soon as possible.

It is better to plan ahead than to mend. According to the opinions of industry insiders and experts, the recessive phenomenon of fund-raising and lending of agriculture-related small and micro enterprises has the following characteristics:

The first is to cover up illegal purposes in a legal form. As the profits of private loans to maintain production and operation are lower than those of loans at higher interest rates, some small and micro enterprises use usury to borrow from villagers to absorb funds on the grounds that they need funds for production and operation, and then transfer them to others at higher interest rates. profit from the interest difference. Similar ways of absorbing, saving and lending have strong concealment, and the risk is not easy to monitor.

Second, there are many people involved. As the borrowing rates of small and micro enterprises are much higher than the deposit rates of the bank and letter departments, some villagers with little legal awareness can not resist the temptation to lend out their personal savings and even the savings of relatives and friends. Such cases involve a large number of families and personnel.

Third, there is great harm to the society. After the capital chain is broken due to the failure of the upstream borrowers to return the principal and interest in time, individual small and micro enterprises are unable to repay the principal and interest of the villagers, which leads to a large number of private loan disputes; and some individual small and micro business owners who flee do not appear in court even if they are sued, resulting in more default judgments and no property to enforce, resulting in no return of principal and interest for the villagers, which can easily lead to unstable events.

Liu Xing, deputy director of the Agricultural economy Department of Henan Agricultural Department, suggested that in view of the financing difficulties of small and micro enterprises, the state should introduce more specific policies to alleviate their dependence on private lending and other problems.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen financial supervision, standardize private lending behavior, and establish a management mechanism with controllable risks, effective supervision and strong binding force. Publicity and education should also be strengthened to remind farmers to recognize the risks and prevent them from being seduced by interests.