Eightsuspects who were allegedly involved in a Ponzi scheme worth 60 billion yuan (US$9.6 billion) have been arrested, police said yesterday.

Zhou Boyun, the legal representative of Shan Lin Financial, the company which reportedly operated the scheme, turned himself in to the police on April 9.

The company was established in 2013 and registered at the Shanghai free trade zone in the Pudong New Area.

Zhou has opened over 1,000 branches since October 2013 without any permit.

Staff were recruited and trained to sell the financial products on which the company promised high returns of 5.4 to 15 percent, police said. Zhou opened four online platforms since 2015 to sell the same products.

Police said Zhou paid the staff high salaries and bonuses with the funds absorbed from the public and spent a lot of the money on advertising of the company, but the investment projects in the scheme were hardly profitable.

The company’s high-ranking managers have also been arrested.