16 persons were sentenced to first instance in a criminal case in Foshan, Guangdong and sentenced to nearly 3 billion in compensation for ecological restoration
A major criminal case involving 16 people including Lin Jingquan in Foshan, Guangdong Province has attracted attention because the prosecution filed a public interest lawsuit against 9 defendants at the same time to claim nearly 3 billion yuan. This claim amount was called the "highest in the country" by the media.
In late November, the case was heard in the Shunde District Court of Foshan City, Guangdong Province.
According to the Shunde District Court’s official WeChat account, "Shunde District People’s Court", on December 24, the Shunde District Court publicly sentenced the defendant Lin Jingquan and other 16 people in a criminal case involving an incidental civil public interest lawsuit for organizing and leading a triad organization. , The crime of provoking trouble, the crime of assembling a crowd, the crime of bribery, the crime of bid collusion, the crime of illegal mining, the crime of organizing prostitution, the crime of illegally purchasing precious and endangered wildlife products, and the combined punishment of several crimes. The defendant Lin Jingquan was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Months, and confiscated all personal property; the remaining 15 defendants were sentenced to 19 to three years in prison.
Nine people including Lin Jingquan, the defendant in a civil public interest litigation, were sentenced to pay a total of more than 2.96 billion yuan for the restoration of the ecological environment and other costs within a limited time.
Gangland organization illegally controls river sand mining
The Shunde District Court found that starting in the 1990s, Lin Jingquan had accumulated economic strength by operating fishing ports, nightclubs, and detergent factories in Sanshui District, Foshan City, accumulating economic strength, and recruiting social idlers to carry out illegal and criminal activities, and gradually formed the behavior. The organization, leader, and backbone members are basically fixed and numerous underworld organizations.
Beginning in 2000, the organization illegally exploited river sand in the Sanshui section of the main stream of the Beijiang River. Through organized violent crimes, it has formed illegal control of the river sand mining industry in the basin involved.
Since 2009, the organization has also colluded with the underworld organization Chen Zhihui (handled in another case) and Zhang Shuhua (handled in another case) gang to illegally mine river sand in the Qingyuan section of the mainstream of the Beijiang River, jointly making illegal profits of over 1 billion yuan.
Through a series of illegal and criminal activities such as provoking troubles, gathering people to fight, organizing prostitution, colluding bids, illegal mining, etc., the organization amassed huge amounts of property, severely damaged the local ecological environment, economic and social life order, and caused extremely bad social impacts. .
The court held that the actions of the defendant Lin Jingquan and others conformed to the criminal characteristics of a gangland organization and should be identified as a gangland organization.
Lin Jingquan should bear criminal responsibility for all crimes committed by the organization, and other organization members should bear criminal responsibility for the crimes they participated in.
Lin Jingquan and other nine persons jointly committed the tort of illegal mining of river sand, which caused serious damage to the local ecological environment and harmed public interests, and they should bear legal responsibility.
Based on the criminal facts, nature, circumstances, and degree of harm to society of each defendant, as well as the degree of damage to the local ecology caused by the defendant's illegal mining in an attached civil public interest lawsuit, the court made the above judgment in accordance with the law.
Several officials who accepted bribes were held accountable
According to the indictment, Lin Jingquan was born in 1965 and was the former legal representative of Foshan Sanshui Hengfuxingda Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. In April 2014, he was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment by Guangdong Zhaoqing Intermediate People's Court for the crime of illegal mining; In April, he was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for bribery by the Guangning County Court of Guangdong, with a two-year probation.
On December 18, 2019, he was detained by Foshan Public Security Bureau on suspicion of organizing, leading, and participating in the underworld crimes.
The Paper noted that there were 16 defendants in this case. The crimes committed by the organization included provoking quarrels, gathering crowds, bribery, bid collusion, illegal mining, organizing prostitution, and on-lending. The crimes committed by individuals included provoking quarrels. And illegal purchase of precious and endangered wildlife products.
According to the indictment, the Shunde District Public Security Bureau of Foshan City has frozen 135 bank accounts involved in the case under the names of members of the organization, frozen funds of RMB 45,589,526.33, HK$23,367.87; seized cash of RMB 6719695, HK$5,345,460, and 15 cars. , 76 boxes of jade ornaments and several jade jewelry; 222 real estates were sealed; 62 shares of 49 companies including Foshan Hengfu Xingda Investment Group Co., Ltd. were frozen.
The first-instance judgment showed that Lin Jingquan and other 16 people had committed crimes of organizing and leading a triad organization, provoking trouble, gathering a crowd for fighting, bribery, bid rigging, illegal mining, organizing prostitution, and illegally purchasing precious and endangered wildlife products. For several crimes, the defendant Lin Jingquan was sentenced to 24 years and 6 months in imprisonment, and all personal property was confiscated; the remaining 15 defendants were sentenced to 19 to three years in prison.
It is worth mentioning that Lin Jingquan and others paid bribes to some of the then local party and government leaders, public security, taxation and other state officials for a long time to seek shelter and convenience for the organization's illegal and criminal activities.
The indictment alleges that Lin Jingquan bribed a total of 28.106 million yuan and Hong Kong dollars 2.79 million to state officials; another defendant, Li Jianhong, bribes 106,000 yuan and 260,000 Hong Kong dollars to state officials.
For example, from 2001 to 2005, Lin Jingquan asked Lu Zhuoqing, then deputy secretary of the Sanshui City (Note: later changed to district) committee and secretary of the Sanshui City Committee’s Political and Legal Committee (a separate case), and Cai Ruwen, director of the Sanshui City Water Resources Bureau (a separate case), Cai Ruwen, deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Sanshui Municipal Party Committee (handled in another case), provided assistance and protection for his organization of illegal mining of river sand in the Lubao and Datang sections of the Sanshui section of the mainstream of the Beijiang River. Lin Jingquan gave Lu Zhuoqing 9 million from 2001 to 2017 Yuan, He Zhouer (the former director of Sanshui District Water Resources Bureau) 9 million yuan, Cai Ruwen 9 million yuan, a total of 27 million yuan.
The Paper noted that in late November, Lu Zhuoqing, Cai Ruwen, and He Zhouer were notified by the Foshan Commission for Discipline Inspection one after another that they were "suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, subject to disciplinary review and supervision and investigation."
Lu Zhuoqing, Cai Ruwen, and He Zhouer have served in Sanshui area for many years and retired in January 2012, March 2011, and July 2014 respectively.
On December 4, the official WeChat account of the Foshan Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, "Incorruptible Foshan", reported that after investigation, Lu Zhuoqing had lost his ideals and beliefs, had a weak sense of purpose, violated national laws and regulations, used the convenience of his position to seek benefits for others, and received illegally. The amount of money from others is extremely large.
Lu Zhuoqing has committed serious violations of discipline and law and is suspected of taking bribes. The nature is serious and the impact is bad, and should be dealt with seriously.
After deliberation by the Standing Committee of the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and reporting to the Municipal Party Committee for approval, it was decided that Lu Zhuoqing should be expelled from the party; the benefits he enjoyed were adjusted in accordance with the regulations; his income from violations of discipline and law was collected; and his suspected crimes were transferred to the procuratorial organ for review and prosecution according to law.
Compensation for ecological environment restoration and other expenses more than 2.96 billion yuan
The Paper previously reported that the Shunde District Procuratorate’s "Criminal Subsidiary Civil Public Interest Litigation Indictment" (Fushun Procurator’s Execution of Criminal Prosecution [2020] No. Z1) showed that the public interest litigant was the Shunde District Procuratorate, and the defendant included 9 people including Lin Jingquan and his household registration. The place or residence is in Sanshui District, Foshan.
The prosecutors allege that since 2000, Lin Jingquan has gathered the remaining defendants to illegally mine river sand, and has also used bribery of state officials with supervisory authority to drive away competitors by means of violent intimidation, etc., thus forming a violation of river sand mining in the river basin. Illegal control of the industry.
The indictment shows that Lin Jingquan’s underworld illegal sand mining in the Sanshui area totaled 12.382503 million cubic meters. The Shunde District Procuratorate commissioned the South China Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to assess the ecological damage caused by illegal mining.
The assessment report concluded that the amount of ecological damage caused by the illegal mining activities of the Lin Jingquan underworld organization was 296,441,100 yuan.
Among them, 1. The cost of ecological environment restoration (geological environment governance, river bank reinforcement and land reclamation) that caused the destruction of the river ecosystem due to illegal mining activities totaled 7.824 million yuan; 2. The value of the restoration of the damaged environmental system was verified and quantified (restored the ecosystem) Mainly) a total of 2,590,998,100 yuan; 3. The value of biological destruction caused by illegal mining activities is quantified to a total of 5.589 million yuan.
The public interest litigation requests are: 1. Order Lin Jingquan and other 9 people to bear joint and several liability for the local ecological damage caused by illegal mining in Sanshui area of Foshan City, totaling 296,411,100 yuan; 2. Order Lin Jingquan and other 9 people to pay for the ecology of the case The damage assessment cost is 960,000 yuan to bear joint liability for compensation; 3. Lin Jingquan and other 9 people were ordered to publicly apologize to the public in the news media above the city level.
The results of the first-instance judgment showed that Lin Jingquan and other 9 persons jointly committed the tort of illegal mining of river sand, causing serious damage to the local ecological environment and harming public interests, and they should bear legal responsibility.
According to the criminal facts, nature, circumstances of each defendant and the degree of harm to society, as well as the degree of damage to the local ecology caused by the defendant’s illegal mining activities in the attached civil public interest lawsuit.
Nine people including Lin Jingquan, the defendant in a civil public interest litigation, were sentenced to pay a total of more than 2.96 billion yuan for the restoration of the ecological environment and other costs within a limited time.
(This article is from The Paper. For more original information, please download the "The Paper" APP)
The Paper, reporter Chen Xuhou