The ¥50 billion Chinese Madoff - could it happen in the West?

Dramatic scenes in China’s Anhui province in January, when 21 executives in peer-to-peer lender Ezubao (e租宝) were arrested and mechanical diggers excavated over a thousand documents buried by staff. If proven, Ezubao will be the largest investment fraud in Chinese history and has already sent shockwaves through alternative lending markets in China and, to a lesser extent, internationally. Christopher Burt of Moon Beever reads into the meteoric rise in online peer-to-peer lending and Ezubao’s spectacular failure.