Study On The Internet Equity-based Crowdfunding's Criminal Risks And Its Prevention

The Internet equity-based crowdfunding is a new financing mode in which the financer publishes his project plan to attract the potential investing from the public via the Internet crowdfunding platform.Then,Investors will get the equity share of financer's company instead.With the successive establishment of Angel Crunch,Dajiatou,Renrentou and other equity-based crowdfunding platforms,this model has also gradually developed in China's financial market.With low cost and high efficiency,the Internet equity-based crowdfunding opens up a new financing way for start-ups and small or medium-sized enterprises,and alleviates the social problem of financing difficulty of small and medium-sized enterprises,becoming one of the more active financing modes.However,with the continuous development of this new model,the equity-based crowdfunding is also facing many legal risks,especially for the criminal legal risks.Under the current legal system of financial supervision,the behavior of different subjects of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding is often suspected of violating laws,and even constituting crimes.Under the above dual legal risks,the development of China's Internet equity-based crowdfunding industry is hampered by many obstacles,which is not conducive to alleviating the financing difficulties faced by enterprises.Therefore,studying on the Internet equity-based crowdfunding's criminal risks and its prevention is an important way to promote its healthy development.There are more than 30,000 words in this paper,which is divided into three chapters,apart from introduction and conclusion.Chapter one is the basic overview of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding,including the introduction of the concept of Internet equity-based crowdfunding and its model's characteristics,the development status of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding abroad and at home,pointing out it's dilemma in China,such as the embarrassing situation that the Internet equity-based crowdfunding has no direct law to obey,facing many criminal law risks faced by this industry's development and so on.From the perspective of subject of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding,chapter two points out the main risks faced by different subjects.According to the generation time of three subjects of Internet equity-based crowdfunding in China,it can be divided into three sections to elaborate the possible criminal risks involved in its behavior,including intermediary platforms,financiers and investors.If the intermediary platforms establish institution to carry out franchising financial business without approval,it will face risks of constituting the crime of setting up financial institutions without authorization and the crime of illegal operation.Secondly,lacking relevant qualifications,the behavior of the financiers in absorbing social funds and selling stocks may constitute the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits,the crime of issuing stocks or companies' bonds without authorization and the crime of fund-raising fraud stipulated in Articles 176,179 and 192 of the Criminal Law.What's more,to realize the purpose of funding-raising fraud,financiers may build their own crowdfunding platform,which constitutes the crime of illegally using information network.Thirdly,investors' behavior may constitute money laundering crime and infringement of other people's intellectual property rights crime.Although this kind of risk does not involve the mode of crowdfunding,it is also one of the criminal risks faced by the Internet equity-based crowdfunding industry.Chapter three puts forward specific measures to prevent the criminal risk of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding.On the one hand,we should limit the application of criminal law.Adhering to the restraint concept of criminal law,we should limit the scope of application of several charges involved in the internet equity-based crowdfunding,raise the threshold of the above charges,extend the buffer between illegal and criminal acts of equity-based crowdfunding,provide a relaxed development environment for Internet financial innovation,and balance the relationship between encouraging financial innovation and strict application of criminal law.On the other hand,non-criminal law means should be actively used to supervise the Internet equity-based crowdfunding,including improving the pre-administrative legal system and establishing the industry self-regulatory norms of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding.By introducing the regulatory experience of the United States and the United Kingdom,combined with the specific national condition in China,this paper makes recommendations that we should establish a sound regulatory system and clarify the qualifications and obligations of the tripartite subjects of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding.Under the guidance of the Internet Finance Association,the industry self-regulatory norms are formulated to achieve self-restraint in the industry of the Internet equity-based crowdfunding.