Unsuspecting people in Shanghai who poured millions of yuan into a financing app were shocked to discover that the only form in which they could get a return on their investment was beef.

Police in the city’s Xuhui district revealed the case to the public recently, and it was reported by the state broadcaster CCTV.

A four-member gang that collected 500 million yuan (US$70 million) for their dodgy cattle-raising project over the past eight years was arrested in November last year.

They were charged with illegal fundraising, said the police.

The gang boasted that they operated cattle farms overseas and imported beef into China.

One of the victims is a woman, surnamed Wu, who said she came to trust the app, the name of which is xuan min yang niu , which means “all people raising cattle”, after visiting their offline store in a high-end shopping area.

Wu said the app offered her an annual return rate of 12 per cent. She invested a total of 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) in the project.