Our reporter Xie Ruolin
"Xu Huan, 100,000 yuan on December 23, 2019", "Li Hongsheng, 200,000 yuan on January 16, 2020", "He Qiuping, 160,000 yuan on December 4, 2020"... In the past month, a reporter from "Securities Daily" Contact statistics of the detailed information of 124 natural persons, from August 2019 to February 2021, they invested a total of 17.72 million yuan, the purpose is to get the movie "Chinatown Detective 3" (hereinafter referred to as "Tang Detective 3") investment The end point of the remittance order is Beijing Genesis Shengshi Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Genesis") and Newmoreben (Beijing) Entertainment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Newmorebook").
A video shot last year showed Newmob and Genesis sharing the same office in a cultural industry park in Baiziwan, Chaoyang District, Beijing.
One day at the end of February, Mr. Liu, an investor, told a reporter from Securities Daily, "There are a few people who are going to Newcomben to defend their rights." However, it was found that Genesis had moved out, and Newmorb had no office.
Neighboring merchants said that Newmore has been out of business for a long time, and there are always people blocking the door.
The person who opened the door at that time was an investor who came from Chongqing. Before that, she squeezed into the room and settled here while the courier was not paying attention.
When the reporter came in, the thin quilt she had used for the night had not been put away, it was still cold, and there was no heating in the office.
Newcomb's office is the same as the general film office, with artist information, promotional posters, key shareholder Ma Bolun's financial planner certificate and publications readily available.
On the same day, Mr. Liu got in touch with Ma Bolun through the police, but the other party said that he could not meet because of the epidemic.
This rights protection action is like a punch to cotton, and the conflicts and emotions that were expected in advance have nowhere to be released.
Due to the glossy appearance of the film industry, the long payment cycle and the opaque industry chain, in the past few years, such incidents of rights protection by small and medium investors have often been staged, but it is difficult to attract attention.
Can you see a star and still make a steady profit?
Film investment secret scams are frequent
This investment experience is like a movie, watching from a comedy to a suspense drama.
Ms. Huang of Beijing is one of Newmoreben's "door-blockers". As a business owner, she has seen the world.
In 2019, Ms. Huang met a friend who is engaged in film investment at an investment summit. This friend often posted successful cases of film investment in the circle of friends and encouraged her to participate in investment.
At that time, the investment company recommended by the other party was Shanghai Yuanna Film Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuanna Film"). After checking the relevant information of Yuanna Film on the Maoyan platform, Ms. Huang decided to follow the investment.
But when she asked the friend to show her ID card information, she was rejected. Out of caution, Ms. Huang "stopped".
Although the first investment failed, the idea of "investing in movies to make money" fell into Ms. Huang's heart like a seed.
She went to Shanghai to find Yuanna Films for inspection. Through a film and television manager recommended by the company, Ms. Huang invested in two films - "Dark Storm" and "Train to Spring", the former has not yet been released, the latter The box office was only 3.237 million yuan.
Shortly after returning to Beijing, the manager recommended the related investment projects of "Tang Tan 3" to Ms. Huang, saying that two companies were authorized to sell shares of "Tang Tan 3", one of which was in Xi'an and the other in New York. Morben.
As a sequel to a well-known film, Ms. Huang is very optimistic about "Tang Detective 3", so she chose to go to Newmobben in the same city for inspection. The project manager introduced the market potential of this film and said, "It must be a steady profit, with a profit of 16%. to 20%”.
On December 26, 2019, Ms. Huang reached an investment intention with Newmoben, and remitted 100,000 yuan of investment funds to Genesis' account according to the requirements of the project manager.
"I started to transfer the money to Newmore, but the other party quickly returned it, saying that Newmore only accepts large investments of more than 500,000 yuan. The behavior of refunding the money also increases the trust, and I also ask the other party to be safe. Signed a power of attorney to certify that Newcomb recognized Genesis' investment funds."
According to the contract provided by Ms. Huang, Genesis promises that "Tang Detective 3" will be released before March 31, 2020. If it is not released as scheduled, all the investment funds plus 8% annualized income will be refunded, and the account will be split within 6 months after the movie is released.
In fact, due to the epidemic, the Lunar New Year films originally scheduled to be released in the Spring Festival in 2020 were collectively withdrawn, and "Tang Detective 3" was postponed until the Spring Festival in 2021. The film screening period ended on May 12 of the same year. Investors will be able to get split accounts before the 12th.
However, the sharing of accounts has been delayed again and again, the project manager has left and lost contact, and Genesis has disappeared. Ms. Huang gradually realized that the signs were wrong.
At the end of 2021, Ms. Huang and 6 other investors blocked Ma Bolun at the entrance of New York, and signed a supplementary agreement with the latter, stipulating that the investment principal should be paid before December 31, 2021.
But as of the press deadline on March 14 this year, Ms. Huang has not yet received the payment.
Why would an experienced business owner believe that cross-border investment in movies will make money?
A senior film critic told reporters that at the end of 2021, he had visited a similar film investment company. Its office decoration was very elegant, and the star brochures and movie posters were lined up in a row, which was quite imposing.
During the exchange, the other party claimed to have invested in well-known movies such as "Chinese Doctor" and "Furious Cases". The professional terminology was explained. It not only provided a complete upstream authorization agreement, but also showed the payment receipts of successful investment cases in history. He also said that he could meet with celebrities.
"Next, I recommended the investment share of "Changjin Lake Water Gate Bridge", which claims to have a return on investment of over 300%. Professional words and teamwork. If I hadn't been well aware of the strangeness, it would have been hard not to be moved."
Shell companies raise hundreds of millions of yuan
Over 500 people marked "Vote for Tang 3"
As early as July 2019, the official Weibo account of "Detective Chinatown" publicly stated: "Any information on the financing of "Detective Tang 3" on the Internet is not true. Wanda Film is the only export of equity investment, and there is currently no external financing demand."
According to reports from several investors, Ma Bolun once said that Newmob's investment share came from Wanda Films (the parent company of Wanda Films).
According to Maoyan information, there are 24 co-producers of "Tang Detective 3", and Newmore is one of them.
Therefore, investors have no doubts about Marblen's claims.
So, is Newmoban the investor of "Tang Detective 3"?
Have you been authorized by Wanda Films?
In this regard, the reporter contacted a relevant person from the securities department of Wanda Films. The other party said: "I don't know. The investment share is a commercial secret, and the securities department cannot reply to these questions." At the same time, the reporter tried to contact Ma Bolun many times, but the other party never answered. telephone.
As for "why Newmore appeared in the list of co-producers of "Tang Detective 3"", a person familiar with the rules of the ticketing platform told reporters, "Generally, the filmmakers need to provide their own identity documents produced and distributed in the film to prove that For the relevant parties of the film, (related companies) can submit it by themselves or be confirmed by the film party, and added to the film-related information after being reviewed by the media team."
So, what is the relationship between Genesis and New York?
The original legal person of Genesis, Hu Jinglin (who is now the legal person Zhang Guiying as her mother) told the "Securities Daily" reporter that she and Ma Bolun did not know each other.
In 2019, Song Qianli and his wife said that someone wanted to buy Genesis for 500,000 yuan, so to pack the company, they borrowed the company's financial seal and bank U-shield.
Subsequently, Genesis began to engage in film investment work.
Hu Jinglin provided the reporter with three bank flow certificates: From January 5, 2019 to December 30, 2019, the Genesis ICBC account received 42.8201 million yuan, most of which came from personal transfers, and the remarks were the movie "No Big No Small" 》Investment funds; From January 11, 2020 to June 15, 2021, the Genesis ICBC account income was 15.1416 million yuan, most of which came from personal transfers. The remarks included "Tang 3 final payment", "Jiulong Tiancoffin investment funds", "I and my hometown to recognize fundraising”, etc.; from November 8, 2019 to March 21, 2021, the Genesis China Merchants Bank’s account income was 57.1887 million yuan, most of which came from personal transfers, and the remarks included “the balance of the investment from the white-haired witch.” "The Mermaid 2" investment", "the movie "Dear Happy New Year" investment" and so on.
A rough calculation shows that since 2019, the total income of the above three accounts has exceeded 115 million yuan, and the total expenditure has been 94.1749 million yuan, of which 34.03 million yuan has been remitted to the pocket of Newmore, and 7.18 million yuan has been remitted to Huayi Film and Television under the name of Song Qianli.
Judging from the bank details, Genesis has been conducting film financing since 2019, involving film projects including "No Big No Small", "Tang Detective 3", "Kowloon Heaven Coffin", "My Hometown and Me", and "Dear New Year", among which With "Tang Detective 3" involving the highest amount, according to the reporter's rough statistics, only 503 of the 921 incomes in the China Merchants Bank account are clearly remarked as "Tang Detective 3" investment funds.
On December 28, 2020, Newmoreben's official Weibo issued a statement saying: The "Power of Attorney" signed by our company and Genesis on November 8, 2019 is valid until December 31, 2019. Newmorb has nothing to do with it.
According to this statement, Newmore's license to Genesis is only valid for 53 days.
Among the 124 natural persons contacted by the reporter, 80% of the investment time that signed the contract with Genesis was "out of the validity period".
"On the surface, Newmore does not approve of Genesis' fundraising after 2020, but when I invested in 2020, Genesis and Newmore were still working together." Guangzhou investor Mr. Xu told reporters.
More than 80% of films lose money
"Investment failure" as a cover excuse
During the interview process, the reporter heard more than once the expression of "stable profit without loss".
Few people realize the existential dilemma of the film industry's glossy exterior.
In 2021, 425 of the 1,000 cinema movies that can be counted across the country have no box office records, which usually means that the box office is negligibly low; among the movies with box office records, there are 847 movies with an income of less than 10 million yuan, The proportion is as high as 84.7%, and 74 of them have an income of even less than 10,000 yuan.
According to the general accounting standard, the box office revenue is 10 million yuan, and the film party is divided into about 3.68 million yuan, and the profit is only after deducting the production cost.
Zhu Yuqing, CEO of Juyinghui, told Securities Daily, "Movies with box office revenue of more than 10 million yuan may not make money, but those with less than 10 million yuan will definitely lose money. The number of movies that can make money every year is about 10% to 20%. %between."
"The film investment projects that can be seen on the market to raise funds for ordinary audiences are almost all fake." Shi Yedong, founder of Yuedong Culture, said, "The law of twenty-eight in the film industry is particularly prominent, and experts in the film investment industry are all ten Nine losses, let alone ordinary people."
Nine out of ten shots has become a shield for many movie investment scams.
"Many companies have no investment shares and qualifications at all, and use false materials to promote fundraising. After these films are released, they will return a small amount of money on the grounds of 'investment failure'." An industry insider told reporters.
In September 2020, Ms. Jun invested 50,000 yuan in the film "Calm the Sea".
The film was released two months later, and the final box office revenue was 83.524 million yuan.
A year later, Ms. Jun suddenly received a transfer of 2,000 yuan.
After inquiring, she learned that this was the investment return for "Calm The Sea". The other party said that because the box office was lower than expected, the film was an investment failure.
Coincidentally, when the reporter communicated with a number of investors, they found that no matter how much investment was invested in the early stage, the return of the film project with "poor box office and investment failure" was less than 5,000 yuan.
According to preliminary statistics, companies such as Beijing Shenghuang International Culture Media Co., Ltd., Shanxi Huabo Culture Media Co., Ltd., and Beijing Shengshi Yinglong Culture Communication Co., Ltd. have all returned part of their investment funds on the grounds of "box office failure".
The above-mentioned industry insiders said that on the one hand, investors have no ability to prove whether these companies have really participated in the investment, on the other hand, they are more willing to believe that they are "investment failure" rather than "deceived".
Therefore, although film investment scams are frequent, they have not caused large-scale doubts.
To this day, when reporters search for "film investment", there are still many seemingly professional crowdfunding platforms promoting them. The projects that can be invested include the popular films "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Lone on the Moon" in the Spring Festival in 2023, and even not long ago. "Super Family", which was just withdrawn from the Spring Festival archives.
"Project managers like to recommend upcoming movies, on the grounds that 'the state encourages individuals to invest in movies'." Chengdu investor Mr. Dong told reporters that he spent 235,000 yuan in 4 companies from December 2019 to April 2021 They invested in 4 films respectively. Except for the "Mystery of Arrival" project party who returned 5,000 yuan due to "poor box office", none of the other companies have received any money back.
Why is it difficult for retail investors to defend their rights?
Experts call for tougher sentences
Zhao Ming, a partner of Beijing Zhongtong Law Firm, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that in recent years, there have been frequent film investment cases, which are collectively referred to as "film project income rights investment scams". On the premise that this behavior constitutes a crime, Such cases are often filed and investigated as the crime of contract fraud or the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits.
So, how to judge whether it is a financial crime or an investment failure?
Lawyer Zheng Chunmei, a senior partner of Beijing Weinuo Law Firm, told the Securities Daily reporter that one cannot simply judge from the results and think that any investment at a loss is a fraud.
Instead, it should be judged from the source, whether the company has fraudulent acts such as fictitious facts, such as whether the company has corresponding financing qualifications, whether it has made false project statements, whether it has obtained upstream authorization, etc.
"But in judicial practice, it is often difficult for victims to provide evidence." Zheng Chunmei further stated that it is often after a year of the movie's release and the payment-sharing period ends that the victim finds out that he can't get the money, and he may have been deceived.
From the perspective of civil rights protection, investors can generally litigate their rights according to the investment contract, but if they want to determine whether it constitutes a fraud, the victim needs to provide further evidence, and this step is difficult.
"Film investment is a field with high cognitive threshold, low process transparency, low controllability and high risk. For ordinary people, they cannot obtain real information sources and are easily involved in scams." Zhao Ming said that at present, Film financing for natural persons is mainly divided into two categories: false financing and over-raising. False financing refers to the use of false information for financing; over-raising refers to the amount of funds raised exceeds the company's subscription share, such as only 5 million yuan invested but sold. 500 million yuan.
Some foresighted investors have already started civil proceedings.
Ms. Jun told reporters that she has sued Genesis in the Internet Court, and the mediation process of the case has ended, and she is currently waiting for the trial.
The Tianyancha professional version of the app shows that Genesis has involved 7 legal lawsuits, more than 70% of which are contract disputes, of which 6 are in the state of first instance.
Newmore was involved in 17 legal proceedings, of which 11 were in the state of first instance, all of which were contract disputes. On December 1, 2021, Newmore was listed as a restricted high-consumption enterprise, and was listed as a dishonest executor in the same month.
At present, Newmore has been executed for a total amount of 855,200 yuan. In the final case, the total amount of execution was 759,300 yuan. The legal person Zhao Yuan was also "limited to high".
Litigation is faced with the problems of long time, high cost and difficulty in execution. Many investors expressed concern to the reporter, "The other party is already a 'laolai', and they are afraid that the investment money will not be recovered after the lawsuit, and they will hire a lawyer of tens of thousands of yuan. fee."
At present, the main way for investors to protect their rights is to report the case.
Ms. Pan from Shenzhen said, "I called the police after admitting I was deceived, and the police accepted it, but I was unable to file a case because I was the only one who was deceived locally, and I couldn't go to Beijing to report the case because of the epidemic. I contacted Beijing Chaoyang Police Station by phone, The police station asked me to find the Beijing Financial Mediation Center, and the Mediation Center asked me to find Chaoyang Economic Investigation and called the Economic Investigation, but the other party did not give specific measures.”
Whether the public security organ has filed a case for contract fraud is subject to a case-filing review in accordance with the law. Generally, there are two situations: one is whether the public security organ to which the investor reports the case has jurisdiction; have criminal facts.
Zhao Ming told reporters, "In the case of the film investment scam, the investment contract is legal on the surface, so when the victim goes to report the case, the public security organs often use the reason of 'belonging to civil disputes and contract disputes' to let the victim Go to court and sue."
Zhao Ming believes that we should start from three aspects to prevent similar scams: first, to form normative documents to improve the transparency of film production and publicity; second, to strengthen the interpretation of the law from the legal level, and to enhance the public's understanding of the film investment industry Third, from the legislative level, the film investment scam can be clearly defined as a criminal crime, and the scope and intensity of criminal punishment can be increased.
(Securities Daily)