An undated photo of the Red River Campus of Xi'an Huaxi University in Shaanxi Province. (Photo: China Plus)

The Red River Campus of Xi'an Huaxi University in Shaanxi Province will be put up for auction on Alibaba in mid-March in a bit to recover funds lost to an illegal fundraising scheme, according to a report by business news magazine Caijing.

Built in 1989, the Red River campus is the largest of the four Xi'an Huaxi University campuses in Shaanxi and Jiangsu Province. The upcoming auction will be the second time the campus has been put up for auction. After the first sale fell through, 15 percent was taken off the price, bringing the starting price down to 425 million yuan (about 63.6 million U.S. dollars).

An undated photo of the Red River Campus of Xi'an Huaxi University in Shaanxi Province. (Photo: China Plus)

The campus is being auctioned off because it was part of an illegal fundraising case involving the university President Wang Mingliang. In June last year, the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court held public hearings into allegations that 18 defendants, including Wang Mingliang, formed an illegal finance vehicle. They solicited deposits from the public for what was sold as a fund for education and poverty alleviation, in exchange for interest rates of 10-16 percent. From 2007 to 2014, the defendants raised 2.39 billion yuan (357 million U.S. dollars) in deposits from 14,931 people.

The defendants in court on June 14, 2018 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province as they faced charges of illegally taking deposits in the name of Xi'an Huaxi University. (Photo: IC)

Wang Mingliang and other 17 defendants were found to be directly responsible for the illegal fundraising. To date, 1.105 billion yuan (around 165 million U.S. dollars) has not been returned to the investors.

The auction will start at 10 a.m. on March 14 and run for 24 hours.