Editor's Note
The leniency system for guilty pleas and punishments is a major innovation in the socialist criminal justice system with Chinese characteristics, enriching the "Chinese plan" for criminal justice and crime governance. Recently, the News Center of the Beijing Municipal Procuratorate and the "Rule of Law in Progress" column of Beijing TV jointly launched the special program "I am a Prosecutor" and "The Story Behind the Plea and Acceptance of Punishment", relying on the 4 cases handled by the Beijing Municipal Procuratorate that applied the leniency system for confession and punishment. Special cases demonstrate the responsibilities and responsibilities of prosecutors in implementing a leniency system for admitting guilt and accepting punishment, effectively promoting social harmony and stability, punishing crimes more promptly and effectively, significantly improving the efficiency of criminal proceedings, and better protecting the rights of the parties involved.
This episode tells the story of a fraud case involving overseas auction collections handled by the Second Branch of the Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate. In this case, the amount of crime is particularly huge, and there are many victims and suspects involved. How can the prosecutor accurately determine the amount of each crime the suspect participated in and determine the criminal liability that each suspect should bear by applying the leniency system for plea guilty and punishment? responsibility?
In July 2018, a case involving a batch of overseas auction collections was transferred to the Second Branch of the Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate.
This case involved more than 460 victims, a fraud amount of more than 30 million yuan, and more than 400 files were transferred. After
arrived at the case, the Second Branch of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate immediately established a joint case-handling team of prosecutors.
After investigation, the suspect contacted the victim through phone software. Every phone call and text message had a direct purpose of contacting the victim. Do you have any collection? Take it and have a look.
"Oh, this stamp of yours is worth 70,000, come to our company for overseas auction!" "This kind of food stamps are too precious, and they will definitely sell for a lot of money at overseas auctions." Some of the stamps in the hands of the victim were of low value or not valuable at all. The collectibles are boasted by scammers to be extremely valuable in overseas markets, as if wealth is easily available and getting rich overnight is just around the corner!
But how can it be so easy to get rich overnight? The scammers will then tell the victim that if they want to sell the collection at a high price, they must package it and become a member of the company. These are all excuses and means for the scammers to charge money.
Firstly, the victim has no sales channels; secondly, he does not understand overseas auctions at all, so he can only listen to the scammers; thirdly, the scammers make the pie bigger and bigger, inducing the victim to feel that this pie is far away from him. It's getting closer and closer, and millions of wealth are right in front of you. All you have to do is pay the auction company to join the membership.
Because an old man who was deceived finally woke up and called the police, this group of scammers was captured by the public security agency. After verification, in prime areas such as Chaoyang District and Dongcheng District of Beijing, the criminal suspects used the names of three companies including Beijing Wanshi Juya International Auction Co., Ltd. to fictitiously be able to auction members' collections at high prices overseas. After the victim became a member, In order to enjoy the overseas auction services provided by the company, more than 460 victims were induced to become members or high-level members of the company, and they purchased items from the above-mentioned auction company at high prices many times, defrauding the victims of more than 30 million yuan in total. In July 2018, the case file was transferred to the Second Branch of the Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate.
Because the crime amount in this case is particularly huge, the suspect may be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison or life imprisonment, which is a felony case. The suspects have a heavy psychological burden, fear of crime and a sense of luck, and have not pleaded guilty.
When questioned by prosecutors, they claimed that they ran a regular auction company and provided auction services. The victim's collection was not auctioned because the auction reserve price set by the victim was too high.
Among the 43 suspects, some young salesmen argued that they came to work in the company and carried out their work in accordance with the company's requirements, and did not know that their actions were fraud.
After the first round of confrontation at the pre-trial conference, faced with the evidence presented by the prosecutor, the suspect began to collapse internally. The defendants who had always insisted on not pleading guilty began to confess and explain the facts of the crime. At the same time, the prosecutors of the case handling team stepped up their comprehensive review and sorting of evidence.Because each suspect participates in different stages of crime, prosecutors must accurately determine the amount of each crime involved in each suspect and determine the criminal liability each suspect should bear.
In addition to strictly reviewing the evidence files transferred by the investigative agencies, prosecutors also dug into and supplemented a number of key evidences. They went to the property management center of the public security agency and found the suspect's account books and documents from dozens of boxes of seized items in two warehouses. Important documentary materials such as wages, commission records, work notes, job appointment documents, and the victim’s credit card contract.
After combing and demonstrating various evidences, the prosecutors have clearly verified every criminal behavior, role, amount of fraud and amount of illegal gains of each suspect.
The prosecutor used working methods such as patient explanation of the law, active education and transformation, and differentiation of responsibilities and leniency with severity. The 15 suspects who participated in this case for a short time, low level, and small responsibilities were used as a breakthrough to carry out the work of confessing and accepting punishment.
The leniency system for plea guilty and punishment means that criminal suspects and defendants who voluntarily and truthfully confess their crimes, admit the alleged criminal facts, and are willing to accept punishment can be treated with leniency in accordance with the law. After work, 15 criminal suspects with relatively minor crimes actively returned compensation and voluntarily confessed and accepted punishment. After being not prosecuted, they returned to their families. The recovery of the stolen money also restored the victims' losses to the maximum extent.
However, when the prosecution was launched, 16 suspects still refused to plead guilty. The prosecutor conducted detailed evidence disclosure at the pre-trial meeting and recorded each suspect’s phone and text message records, transfer records, and signed contracts with the victims. The entrusted auction contract, salary commission income record, etc., and the statements of each deceived victim were presented in detail. In the face of such conclusive evidence, any concealment and sophistry by the defendant are meaningless.
On November 29, 2019, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court made a first-instance verdict after a trial. 28 defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 14 years to two years in prison, and were also fined.
Source: Beijing Inspection Online
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