(Yicai Global) June 21 -- A court in Jiangsu province has sentenced Zhang Xiaolei, founder of online lending platform Qianbao, to 15 years in prison and confiscated CNY100 million (USD14.6 million) worth of his property after finding him guilty of illegal fundraising through his peer-to-peer lending platform.

Zhang pled guilty to his crimes and repented, saying he would obey the Nanjing Municipal Court's orders and not appeal, state-backed broadcaster CCTV reported today. The sentence was reduced because Zhang surrendered himself and actively worked with debt recovery agencies in an attempt to repay the retail investors he swindled.

The fraudster set up Qianbai in 2012 and advertised annual rates of return of between 20 percent and 60 percent to lure in P2P lenders and take their money, the court determined. Zhang used only a small portion of funds raised for company operations and mostly spent the cash on himself, it added.

Zhang turned himself on Dec. 26, 2017 after accumulating CNY100 billion in ill-gotten gains and blowing through CNY30 billion of investors' cash which was never to be returned, making this the second most costly fundraising scandal in China's internet finance sector.

The Ezubao Ponzi scheme, which left investors CNY38 billion out of pocket, was the largest such fraud. Ding Ning, chairman of Ezubao's operator Anhui Yuncheng Holdings Group, got life in prison and 25 others faced jail time for their role in the crime.

Editor: James Boynton