(Yicai Global) July 3 – The test site of Transit Elevated Bus (TEB)-1 in Beidaihe in North China's Hebei province, once hailed by foreign media as "one of the world's 50 greatest inventions in 2010," was recently dismantled by the local government, and 32 employees of the project's owner, Beijing Huaying Kailai Asset Management Co., have been detained by the police in Beijing on illegal fund-raising charges late last month.

The Dongcheng Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said on its Weibo account yesterday that it has received reports from investors claiming that Beijing Huaying Kailai Asset Management is involved in illegal fund-raising activities and that the police have detained 32 suspects in late June.

Several informed sources have confirmed that one of the suspects is Bai Zhiming, also known as Bai Danqing, who is the actual controller of the Beijing-based company and TEB Technology Development Co., reported caixin.com.

Bai incorporated Huaying Kailai Asset Management as an online peer-to-peer finance company in early 2015, public information shows. He bought the TEB patent from its inventor, Song Youzhou, and founded TEB Technology Development about 11 months later.

Later on, Huaying Kailai said that a local government was interested in developing the TEB project through public-private partnership (PPP), and the company planned to raise funds from the public. It launched a wealth management product bundled with the project with the minimum investment amount fixed at CNY1 million (USD147,200), claiming that the annualized return on investment will be 12 percent, increasing to 14 percent in the second year. Most investors have not recovered their investment, and they are planning further action to protect their interests, one of the investors told Caixin.

The TEB can travel along rails in main roads in cities, its inventor explained, saying that it straddles 2.1 to 2.2 meters above the road to allow cars below two meters to pass underneath and maintain road traffic, so it offers an effective solution to traffic congestion.

The 22-meter-long prototype made headlines when it debuted in Beidaihe last August. However, the trial operation caused immediate public concern and led to questions about its technical feasibility. The test site that had been sitting idle since its launch was dismantled by the local government late June to resume normal road traffic.