The project of a double-decker rail bus from China turned out to be a major financial scam.

Last year, many resources, including Geektimes , had information about a unique two-level rail bus from China. According to its developers, the bus (despite the rails, this vehicle was really decided to be called a bus) could move along the roads of the megalopolis without interfering with other modes of transport. Cars can pass right below it, the height from the road to the bottom of the bus allows you to go directly above the roofs of cars.



In China, the problem of traffic is very relevant, so that the authorities and entrepreneurs have paid attention to this two-story rail bus. The developers managed to get funding from several sources at once. Some time after tests, this project was almost forgotten, but now information about it has begun to appear again. True, now it is no longer a matter of unloading the roads, but of the fact that the project itself is an ordinary fraud, and on a rather large scale. More precisely - a typical pyramid.



The project itself became famous after last year, in August, in the urban district of Qinhuangdao, a bus portal was tested. The design of this system provides for the placement of passengers on the second floor, and the first - in fact, an empty space. It is through this niche that the vehicles over which the vehicle moves pass. The developers initially showed a small model, and then built a full-fledged bus. Its length, according to the creators, was to be 22 meters, width - 7.8 meters, height - 4.8 meters.



It was first shown at an exhibition in Beijing, and visitors, once inside, were amazed at the size of this bus. It is really spacious there.







Just a few days after the tests were carried out, the first doubters appeared that the project was real. Despite the statements of the developers, the journalists found out that the actual testing of the rail bus was not carried out, moreover, the “tests” that the company told the whole world about were not agreed with the authorities. And these were, in fact, not field tests, but the company's own tests.



It was also initially reported that the company collected funds for the implementation of its project on a crowdfunding Chinese resource. In any case, the creators of this system said so. Now the Beijing police are investigating the real sources of funding for this project, checking whether the authors of the project used legal methods to raise funds. Interestingly, for the demonstration of the “bus” a special road was built with rails 300 meters long literally in the middle of the city, which the authorities are now going to remove because it bothers everyone.



The executive director of the company TEB Technology Development (TEB), which has acquired a patent for this vehicle, is in the case of creating a fraudulent scheme. Other suspects pass along it - only 30 people. A few days before his arrest, the businessman stated that he was going to transport the bus to another city.



The idea of ​​creating a new type of vehicle first appeared in 2010, and since then it has been gradually implemented. Last year, the business got off the ground, and the bus makers said that they had contracts with the authorities of five different cities of the PRC. But this, as far as can be judged, was not true, the company deliberately spread these and other rumors to attract attention and raise funds. Experts said that such a bus, in fact, will not relieve the load from the roads, but will create additional problems for cars and trucks.







With regard to financial fraud, the company tried to attract additional investment, promising 12% of "annual" to all depositors. In order to become an investor, a company or an individual had to provide the TEB with at least $ 150,000 in initial investment. Despite the size of the sum, many agreed to such conditions. As a result, the police received 72 statements from defrauded investors, most likely, this is not all victims. Judging by the documents published by Chinese media , TEB managed to raise more than $ 1.3 billion US dollars. In principle, this money could be used to start a major transport project, real, not fake (like for example, Ilon Mask with his Boring Company), but the management of TEB did not intend to build anything, the goal was to collect money.



Now the investigation into the case of a double-decker Chinese rail bus is still ongoing, so it is possible that we will soon hear about additional interesting details.