Pyramid scheme plays on 'Britishness' to ensnare China investors
Shanghai
AS David Byrne ate breakfast at the Tongli Lakeview Hotel outside Shanghai one Sunday in April, an angry customer was waiting for him.
Mr Byrne, 52, is a British businessman who sells investment products. The previous day, he had introduced himself to a roomful of potential customers in the hotel as the new London head of a foreign currency trading platform whose website offered very high returns.
But Tang Hongde, the man watching as Mr Byrne lingered over his meal, wanted to talk about an earlier venture which the Briton had said he headed.
That operation, called EuroFX, had also promised fat returns on foreign exchange. Chinese law enforcement authorities now say it was a pyramid scheme, which used cash …
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