On September 22, the relevant person in charge of the Supreme People's Court stated at a press conference on the work of the People's Court on Punishing Financial Crimes and Typical Cases. endanger national financial security.

The people's courts attach great importance to preventing and combating illegal fund-raising, continuously improve judicial interpretations and judicial policies, and punish illegal fund-raising crimes in accordance with the law, and have achieved important results.

Why continue to improve judicial interpretations

　　Judicial interpretation has become one of the most basic and important legal basis for people's courts at all levels to try all kinds of litigation cases, and it has also become an important force to promote the process of national rule of law.

　　In terms of punishing crimes of illegal fund-raising according to law, the Supreme People's Court has formulated the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases of Illegal Fund-raising, and jointly formulated the "Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Illegal Fund-raising" in conjunction with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security "Opinions" and "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning Handling of Criminal Cases of Illegal Fund Raising", which provide clear judicial interpretations and judicial policies for the trial and handling of criminal cases of illegal fund raising.

　　In addition, the "Criminal Law Amendment (11)" has made major revisions to the criminal law provisions for the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits and the crime of fund-raising fraud.

In March 2022, the Supreme People's Court revised the judicial interpretation of illegal fundraising, and adjusted and improved the conviction and punishment standards for criminal cases of illegal fundraising.

　　"Illegal fund-raising is mainly reflected and regulated by two separate charges, including the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits and the crime of fund-raising fraud." Wang Shuo, an associate professor of the Law Department of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, told the Beijing Business Daily reporter, "The relevant judicial system for illegal fund-raising The interpretation is of great significance for revealing the basic characteristics of illegal fund-raising crimes, making the manifestations of illegal fund-raising behavior clearer, and unifying the criminalization standards and sentencing consequences of illegal fund-raising behaviors.”

　　"As for all kinds of illegal fund-raising crimes, it is generally reflected in practice that the relevant laws and regulations are not clear and specific, the boundaries between policies and laws are not easy to grasp, and there are many difficult problems in the application of laws. Further improvement of judicial interpretations can solve relevant vague problems to a certain extent." Beijing Lawyer Zhang of Yingke Law Firm said.

Severely punish a number of major illegal fundraising cases in accordance with the law

　　It is worth noting that while the judicial interpretation is steadily advancing, important breakthroughs have been made in the practice of judicial disposal. The continuous high-pressure situation has made illegal fundraising nowhere to hide.

　　Illegal fund-raising cases often garner billions of dollars, with as many as 40 to 50 billion yuan. The losses caused by many illegal fund-raising scams are shocking.

In recent years, the Supreme People's Court has successively tried and dealt with a number of major illegal fundraising cases such as Beijing "ezubao", "Kunming Fanya", Jiangsu "Qianbao", Shanghai "Fuxing", etc., and achieved good political and legal effects. social effects.

　　According to the typical cases of people's courts punishing financial crimes according to the law announced by the Supreme People's Court on September 22, "Kunming Fanya" used legal business methods to carry out illegal fund-raising crimes, and carried out "entrustment" business in the name of rare metal trading, financing and financing. Publicly publicized, promised to pay a fixed return, lured the public to invest, and illegally absorbed more than 167.8 billion yuan of public deposits, involving more than 130,000 fund-raising participants.

　　The above cases have been severely punished in accordance with the law, and illegal fundraising has been severely cracked down from the source.

The defendant shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance with the law, and the seized, detained and frozen property involved in the case shall be disposed of in accordance with the law, and shall be returned to the fund-raising participants in proportion.

　　According to reports, from January 2017 to August 2022, courts nationwide concluded 117,100 first-instance criminal cases of disrupting financial management order and financial fraud, and 186,300 defendants were sentenced.

The average severe penalty rate for illegal fundraising criminal cases is 19.99%, of which the severe penalty rate for fundraising fraud crimes is 78.78%, which is much higher than the average severe penalty rate for criminal cases.

From 2017 to August 2022, courts across the country concluded 60,200 criminal cases of first-instance illegal fundraising involving 108,700 people.

Beware of the new "coat" of illegal fundraising

　　"Illegal fund-raising is spreading rapidly." Jing Jie, deputy director of the Legal and Policy Research Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said before that, for a period of time, illegal fund-raising criminal methods have been constantly renovated, and their concealment and confusion have increased.

　　In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards, the demand for people to participate in investment and financial management has become increasingly strong.

Lawbreakers have made new "packages" of illegal fundraising.

　　To this end, lawyer Zhang summed up several new illegal fund-raising methods to reporters from Beijing Business Daily, such as publishing information such as selling overseas funds, original shares, overseas listing, and developing high-tech on the Internet under the banner of overseas investment and high-tech development. Invest, then shut down the site and go into hiding with the money.

Or illegally raise funds under the guise of P2P, apply the innovative concept of Internet finance, set up a so-called P2P online lending platform, publish false bidding information and other means to attract funds and abscond with the money.

　　"The recent illegal fund-raising behavior through social hotspots is also worthy of attention." Wang Shuo added, for example, there have been cases of illegal fund-raising hyping new concepts such as "metaverse", elderly care services and investment.

　　Faced with the complex new "coat" of illegal fund-raising, Wang Shuo pointed out: "No matter how the form of illegal fund-raising changes and how it is 'stealth', its essential characteristics of using high returns as bait and absorbing funds from the public remain unchanged."

　　"Illegal fundraising is an illegal act, and the funds and related interests invested by participants in illegal fundraising are not protected by law. Therefore, when some units or individuals sell high-interest deposits, stocks, bonds, funds and development projects with high investment returns, they must It is necessary to identify carefully and invest prudently.” Lawyer Zhang said that in order to crack down on illegal fundraising, he said that he can check whether the relevant company is a legal listed company approved by the state through the government website, and find out whether the relevant company is a legal listed company approved by the state by checking the industrial and commercial registration information. A legal business that has been legally registered.

　　Beijing Business Daily reporter Fang Binnan intern reporter Hao Yan