HAIKOU, Jan. 28 -- Head of a pawn brokerage has been arrested for illegally raising worth hundreds of millions of yuan in south China's Hainan Province, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Shen Guilin, also the former deputy chairman of Hainan Federation of Industry and Commerce, raised about 800 million yuan (132.24 million U.S. dollars) from more than 200 people from February 2010, promising them high monthly interest from two to three percent, said the Haikou Public Security Bureau.

He used the money for investments or personal expenditure, and soon it became impossible for him to pay back the money. In December last year, he fled via Hong Kong to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

He has confessed to illegally collecting public funds, according to the police.