Shenzhen’s Jereh collapse leaves 150,000 gold investors offered pennies on the dollar

A Shenzhen-based gold trading platform, Jereh, has collapsed after restricting withdrawals on January 20, leaving more than 150,000 users — many described as housewives and working-class investors — unable to access funds, according to local media reports. Jereh ran a “pre-set price” product that functioned like unlicensed options trading: users could lock a gram price with small deposits, the platform acted as counterparty, offered up to 40x leverage, and no physical gold was delivered when positions settled.

Withdrawals were capped around January 20 at about $69 or one gram per day, triggering a bank-run response. Thousands of investors reportedly gathered at Jereh’s Shenzhen office, with scuffles with police reported as people demanded their money. Local authorities set up a task force and said on January 31 that Jereh had started repaying after disposing assets and commissioning a third-party audit, with officials calling widely circulated unpaid totals “significantly exaggerated.” The platform’s proposed offers — a 20% lump sum or 40% over 12 months — have in practice yielded far lower payouts for many customers.

Victims told local media of steeply reduced offers: one investor who put in $5,100 received offers of $1,219 and later $244; another with more than $44,400 in cash and metals was offered roughly $2,800 (about 6%). Customers who bought platinum were reportedly excluded from payouts.

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