中國大媽“討債團”因涉黑被判刑

A Chinese court has sentenced 14 members of a roving band of elderly female debt collectors to as many as 11 years in jail, in the latest sign of the country’s clampdown on informal channels of lending.

最近，中國一法院判處14名中老年婦女“討債團”成員最高11年監(jiān)禁，這是中國整治非正式貸款渠道的最新跡象。

A court in the mountainous province of Henan this week found that members of the “granny gang”, as local media dubbed them, used loudspeakers to publicly cajole and intimidate borrowers into paying up.

本周河南省一法院發(fā)現(xiàn)“大媽涉黑團”——當?shù)孛襟w稱呼——成員使用揚聲器公開勸誘和恐嚇借款人還錢。

The women, aged 50 to 70, were found guilty of engaging in “provocative and disturbing behaviour” that resembled “participating in gangster-like organisations”.

這群婦女年齡在50歲至70歲之間，被判犯有“組織、領導、參加黑社會性質組織罪和尋釁滋事罪”。

The women were largely unemployed and looking for work when local debt-collection agencies recruited them at outdoor dancing classes in 2013. In return for helping secure loan repayments, the “grannies” received Rmb200 ($30) per day as well as meals.

這些婦女基本無業(yè)，2013年她們在跳廣場舞時被當?shù)赜憘鶛C構招募。“大媽們”幫助討債的報酬為每天200元人民幣(合30美元)，而且管飯。

“I had nothing to do every day. When I was asked to help, I did it as a kind of fun,” Gao Yun, one of the women, told a local newspaper.

其中一名婦女高云(化名)向當?shù)匾患覉蠹埍硎荆?ldquo;我每天都沒事情干，玩得好的叫去幫忙，我就去了，就當是好玩。”

The grannies employed a variety of tactics, including hitting and spitting at borrowers. A more common method was to give debtors an aggressive verbal dressing down until they handed over the money.

這些大媽采取了各種手段，包括毆打借款人，向借款人吐痰等。較常見的做法是強烈地辱罵債務人，直到他們還錢。

On their most recalcitrant targets, the women took more creative measures. In one 2015 incident, eight of the women began stripping to intimidate male borrowers to pay up, according to an interview that a debtor surnamed Zhao gave to local media.

對于最頑固的欠款人，大媽們采取了更有創(chuàng)意的做法。據(jù)被害人趙某對當?shù)孛襟w陳述，2015年8名婦女見到男性借款人就開始脫自己的衣服，威脅對方還錢。

“Loan sharks use these methods frequently: harassing a person, encircling them, going to their workplace and not leaving,” said Han Chuanhua, a lawyer at Beijing’s Zhongzhi Law Office. “Using grannies or elderly people is just one of the ways I have seen loan sharks do this to collect debts.”

北京中咨律師事務所(Zhongzi Law Office)律師韓傳華表示：“高利貸者經(jīng)常使用這些方法：騷擾一個人，圍著他們，去他們工作單位待著不走。用大媽或老人只是我見過的高利貸討債方式之一。”

The case of the granny gang is the latest in a string of lurid incidents over debt collection in China.

“大媽涉黑團”是中國一系列聳人聽聞的討債事件中的最新一起。

Central bank statistics show that non-bank lending is one of the fastest-growing forms of credit in the country. Because China lacks a uniform credit system — making access to financing difficult — borrowers often turn to an informal network of shadow banks for loans that can carry interest rates as high as 10 to 15 per cent per month.

據(jù)中國央行統(tǒng)計顯示，非銀行貸款是中國發(fā)展最快的貸款形式之一。由于中國缺乏統(tǒng)一的信貸制度，加大了融資難度，借款人往往會轉向非正式的影子銀行網(wǎng)絡獲得貸款，其利率可高達每月10%至15%。

However, shadow lenders do not have legal recourse to recover loans, meaning collectors sometimes turn to unorthodox and even violent tactics to press borrowers into repaying. China’s economic boom was in part financed by high-interest credit, but growing defaults on debt are now exposing the darker side of such financing.

但是，影子貸款人無法求助法律來追回貸款，這意味著討債人有時會轉而采取非正統(tǒng)的，甚至暴力的策略來迫使借款人還款。中國的經(jīng)濟繁榮部分是由高利貸資助的，但越來越多的債務違約正在揭示此類融資的黑暗面。

In February, a 23-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison after killing a debt collector and wounding three others after they assaulted his mother. The case fuelled public outrage over the aggressive methods of loan sharks.

今年2月，一名23歲的男子因幾個討債人侮辱他的母親，反抗時造成討債人一死三傷，因此被判處無期徒刑。這起案件激起了公眾對高利貸暴力討債的憤慨。

Last year, authorities disrupted a ring of blackmailers offering high-interest, short-term loans. Under the scheme, borrowers — mostly young university students — were required to submit nude selfies as collateral, which loan sharks threatened to leak if they failed to pay up.

去年，有關部門打掉了一批提供短期高利貸的勒索者。按照該貸款方案，借款人——大多是年輕的高校學生——被要求提交自己的裸照作為抵押品，高利貸者威脅如果他們不還錢，這些裸照就會被泄露。

However, kidnapping still remains the most common method for extorting payment. In late July, a group of investors took the employees of an Australian brokerage in Shanghai hostage after the company lost $2.6m in foreign currency trades that week. All hostages were eventually released.

不過，綁架仍然是強行討債最常見的方法。7月下旬在上海，一群投資者扣留了一家澳大利亞券商的員工，因為該公司當周虧損了260萬美元的外匯交易。所有人質最終被釋放。