23 October 2020
Four guiding cases were released at the 42nd meeting of the 13th Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on July 6, 2020 as the 20th batch of guiding cases. The matters included bribery at a certain county library in Zhejiang Province involving two individuals, a business unit and the private distribution of state assets. Two of these cases are introduced as follows.
1. The Zhejiang Province county library case (Prosecutorial Example No. 73)
The basic facts and decision: From 2012 to 2016, two individuals named Zhao and Xu discussed and decided to accept a kickback of about RMB 360,000 off the books through a county library’s book procurement process to distribute staff benefits and pay other expenses of their unit. The county library issued invoices for false purchases by other companies, listed false labor expenses and library cards with falsely inflated prices to obtain RMB 630,000 in funds, of which RMB 560,000 was distributed to the staff of the unit in the name of that unit. In addition, Xu then used library cards with falsely inflated prices via a separate library procurement department to obtain RMB 38,000 as personal funds. The supervisory committee of that county only investigated Zhao for corruption and accepting bribes, but after a pre-emptive intervention from the people’s procuratorate, the county library and Xu were also subsequently indicted after relevant evidentiary materials were sorted out and analyzed, and a comprehensive opinion issued through sufficient communications with the supervisory authority. On December 20, 2018, the county people’s court fined the county library RMB 200,000 for accepting bribes as a unit, sentenced Zhao to one year and two months in prison along with a fine of RMB 100,000 for accepting bribes as a unit and the private distribution of state assets. On January 10, 2019, the county people’s court sentenced Xu to one year in prison along with a fine of RMB 200,000 for the same charges as Zhao.
Summary: When a people’s procuratorate examines and prosecutes cases involving occupation-related crimes, if it believes that the relevant unit is also involved in the offense with the facts and evidence clearly in support, the offending unit may also be indicted after proper communications with the supervisory authority. If the procuratorial authority finds during the examination and prosecution any omission of accomplices or criminal facts, they shall be promptly communicated to the supervisory authority and handled in accordance with law.
2. Li Huabo corruption case (Prosecution Example No. 74)
The basic facts and decision: From October 2006 to December 2010, Li Huabo took advantage of his position and together with Zhang Qinghua, Xu Detang and others, cheated the Finance Bureau of Poyang County for a total of RMB 94 million from its special infrastructure fund by using past approval procedures, issuing transfer checks stamped with false seals, preparing false bank statements and other means. Li Huabo used around RMB 2.4 million to emigrate his family to Singapore and purchase real estate there, converted RMB 27 million into Singapore dollars and transferred the same to his and his wife’s personal accounts at United Overseas Bank in Singapore and subsequently used the same for purchasing real estate and investment. Except for 1.5 million Singapore dollars that was used for project investment, the remainder was seized and attached by the Singapore police. Since Li Huabo has fled to Singapore, China and Singapore worked cross-borders to pursue the fugitive, conducted foreign criminal prosecution, and finally applied special procedures to seize Li Huabo’s illegal proceeds and forced him to return to China to surrender and stand trial. On January 23, 2017, the Shangrao Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Li Huabo to life imprisonment for corruption, stripped him of all political rights for life, and confiscation of all his personal property. Other than the funds already recovered from his accomplices and those seized under confiscation of illegal proceeds, continued efforts would be made to recover the remaining stolen funds.
Summary: In cases of major job-related crimes such as corruption and bribery, when the criminal suspects or defendants remain at large and fail to appear after being wanted for one year, if there is evidence to prove the crime and if the illegal proceeds and other property involved maybe recovered pursuant to the Criminal Law, the illegal proceeds shall be so seized. If, after the ruling on confiscation of illegal proceeds takes effect, the suspect voluntarily surrenders or is apprehended, the procuratorial authority shall conduct an examination in accordance with the ordinary criminal procedure, and the procedure shall be properly aligned with that applied in the original confiscation of illegal proceeds.
For further information, please contact:
Di Wu, Lee Tsai & Partners
lawtec@leetsai.com
