Gold Rush Gone Wrong: 150,000 Investors Left Holding Fool’s Gold

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Well, butter my biscuit and call me disappointed-Shenzhen’s Jereh, a gold trading platform that promised the moon and delivered a pothole, has collapsed faster than a soufflé in a sauna. Over 150,000 investors are now scratching their heads, wondering where their golden dreams went.

The Jereh fiasco-the granddaddy of recent unlicensed gold platform failures in China-has turned into a full-blown circus. Investors are refusing a repayment scheme that offers them pennies on the yuan, and let’s just say they’re not exactly rolling out the red carpet for it.

How Jereh Worked (Or Didn’t)

Operating out of Shuibei, China’s glittering gold and jewelry hub, Jereh lured in the masses with promises of zero fees, dreamy buyback prices, and a product called “pre-set price trading.” For just $4, you could lock in the price of one gram of gold! Sounds too good to be true? Spoiler alert: it was.

Turns out, Jereh was running a leveraged betting operation with all the physical gold of a unicorn’s horn. They took the opposite side of every user’s bet, with leverage up to 40 times. When gold prices surged, their liabilities did the financial equivalent of a belly flop into a kiddie pool.

The Great Gold Bank Run

By January 20, withdrawals were capped at $69 or one gram of gold-a move that sparked a pilgrimage of angry investors to Jereh’s Shenzhen office. Housewives, working-class folks, and anyone else who’d been sold a golden dream showed up demanding their money. Scuffles with police ensued, because nothing says “financial stability” like a good old-fashioned brawl.

Payouts: A Masterclass in Disappointment

The local government stepped in with a task force and announced repayments were underway. But for investors, the reality has been about as cheerful as a tax audit. Initial offers included a lump-sum payment of 20% of the principal or 40% in installments. In practice? Payouts have been more like 6%-if you’re lucky.

One investor from Henan put in $5,100 and got back $1,219 on the first try. The second attempt? A whopping $244. Another victim, with $44,400 in cash and precious metals, was offered $2,800. Platinum buyers? They’ve been left out entirely, raising suspicions that Jereh’s “platinum” was about as real as a three-dollar bill.

The “Criminal Pardon” Clause: Because Why Not Add Insult to Injury?

To add salt to the wound, Jereh’s redemption process requires victims to sign a “criminal pardon letter,” waiving their right to sue-regardless of the payout. “Sign this, and maybe we’ll give you $236,” they’re essentially saying. Spoiler: many investors are refusing, opting instead to lawyer up and fight back.

Not Just Jereh: A Nationwide Gold Fever Dream

Jereh isn’t the only platform that’s gone belly up. Across China, similar schemes have crumbled as surging gold prices exposed operators who bet against their customers without proper hedging. It’s like a financial version of musical chairs, and the music stopped months ago.

Jereh’s social media accounts? Deleted. Calls to the company? Unanswered. Attempts to reach the owner, Zhang Zhiteng? About as successful as finding a needle in a haystack. Meanwhile, the Luohu District task force is still registering claims, and the investigation drags on.

So, there you have it: a tale of golden promises, financial folly, and the age-old lesson that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Unless it’s a free sample at Costco. That’s always legit.

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2026-02-02 06:36