HANGZHOU, April 24 -- Police in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou are hunting the boss of a wealth management company who disappeared with about a billion yuan (153 million U.S. dollars) of investors' money.

Investors in Wangzhou Fortune have been reporting problems with the company's cash flow since April 18. More than 20,000 people have invested a total of about 2.2 billion yuan in the company, which has dozens of branches in major Chinese cities, Hangzhou police told Xinhua on Sunday.

The conglomerate Wangzhou Group, parent of Wangzhou Fortune, confirmed its chairman Yang Weiguo's disappearance on Thursday. Wangzhou Group also closed its shopping mall in Hangzhou after the scandal emerged.

To repay investors, Wangzhou Group will retrieve about a billion yuan after receiving principal and interest payments from its lending. It will try to cover the 1.2 billion yuan gap by selling properties, according to a statement from the company.

Wangzhou Group has more than 200 subsidiaries in commerce, automobiles, health and wealth management, including Wangzhou Fortune. It employs some 7,000 people in 70 cities.