Trust Product's Rescue Too Close for Comfort

(Beijing) -- Hundreds of investors were counting down to a big payoff when suddenly the trust company handling their money warned they might lose everything.

The online warning issued by China Credit Trust Co. Ltd. (CCT) on January 15 said an investment product that financed a struggling coal mining concern in the northern province of Shanxi might default. The product was to mature just two weeks later, on January 31, the first day of the lunar new year.