"One Hundred Hongtong Staff" Xu Jin's Confiscation of Illegal Income Sentenced
Pursue fugitives and recover stolen goods
On November 15th, following the fall of the legal gavel, Xu Jin, a "hundred red-handed officer", applied for embezzlement and bribery for the confiscation of illegal proceeds in the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court of Hubei Province.
The court ruled in accordance with the law to confiscate 780.67 acres of state-owned land use rights at the Shekou Fishery in Huangpi District, Wuhan City, as well as 8 properties, 3 parking spaces and 1 Audi car that Xu Jin received bribes.
Xu Jin used to be Deputy Secretary and District Chief of Huangpi District, Wuhan City, and Director of Wuhan Development and Reform Commission.
His wife Liu Fang was the general manager of the claims management department of PICC Hubei branch.
On May 19, 2011, Xu Jin and Liu Fang fled abroad.
On July 5, 2012, Interpol issued a red arrest warrant against Xu Jin and Liu Fang.
This verdict is another successful case in which my country applied a special confiscation procedure to confiscate the illegal gains of escaping corrupt elements following the confiscation of Bai Jing’s illegal proceeds last year.
Article 48 of the Supervision Law stipulates that “If the person under investigation escapes and cannot appear in the case after one year, or dies, the supervisory organ shall request the People’s Procuratorate to apply to the People’s Court for confiscation of illegal gains in accordance with legal procedures.”
As an effective legal weapon for chasing fleeing and recovering stolen goods, the confiscation procedure of illegal gains can help restore the country's losses to the greatest extent, cut off the capital chain of fleeing corrupt elements, and squeeze the living space of fleeing people abroad.
After the reform of the national supervision system, no trial in absentia was received from illegal gains, and from extradition to repatriation, vivid practices have shown that my country’s ability to use legal means to pursue and recover stolen goods is becoming more and more adept. .
Never let corrupt elements continue to enjoy the "dividend" of stolen money
After fleeing with huge sums of money for 10 years, Xu Jin and Liu Fang have long been locked by Skynet.
On June 6, 2018, the Central Office of Escape Pursuit issued an announcement on some clues about some expatriates, and notified the public about 50 fugitives suspected of duty crimes and economic crimes. The names of Xu Jin and Liu Fang were impressively listed.
After investigation by the case-handling agency, Xu Jin was suspected of corruption and bribery, and Liu Fang was suspected of bribery. The two transferred a large amount of assets involved in the case overseas.
After Xu Jin and Liu Fang fled, while actively pursuing the fugitive, the case-handling agency initiated the confiscation procedure for the illegal income of their domestic assets involved in the case.
On May 27, 2019, the Wuhan Municipal People’s Procuratorate filed an application to the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court for the confiscation of the criminal suspect Xu Jin’s illegal gains from corruption and bribery.
On August 20 this year, Xu Jin's application for the confiscation of illegal proceeds from corruption and bribery was opened in the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court.
The Wuhan Municipal People’s Procuratorate’s application stated: From 2006 to 2007, the criminal suspect Xu Jin took advantage of his position as the mayor of Huangpi District, Wuhan, and conspired with others to instruct the relevant personnel to pass the false land leveling project and forge relevant engineering materials, etc. The method defrauded 1979.3 million yuan of state-owned funds to pay for the land transfer fees of 780.67 acres of state-owned land use rights acquired by the company that was actually controlled by others.
From 2006 to 2009, Xu Jin took advantage of his position as the mayor of Huangpi District of Wuhan City to provide assistance in matters such as land transfers and commercial projects for companies actually controlled by others.
From October 2006 to May 2011, Xu Jin has repeatedly received more than 63.81 million yuan, more than 88.87 million Hong Kong dollars, and more than 2.55 million U.S. dollars from others.
Part of the money was used to purchase 8 properties, 3 parking spaces and 1 Audi car.
In view of Xu Jin’s failure to escape the case so far, the Wuhan Municipal People’s Procuratorate applied to the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court for the confiscation of 780.67 mu of state-owned land use rights Xu Jin had obtained by embezzling state-owned funds and the above-mentioned real estate, parking spaces and vehicles purchased by Xu Jin with bribes.
On November 15th, the case was finally settled, marking the initial results of Xu Jin and Liu Fang's recovery of stolen goods.
"For some of the'hundred red-pass personnel', although they have not been recovered due to various reasons, we can confiscate their illegal gains before the criminal suspects have come to the case, and we will never allow corrupt elements to continue to enjoy the'bonus' of the stolen money." Beijing Said Zhang Lei, a professor at the Institute of Criminal Law Science of the Normal University.
Procedures for confiscation of illegal gains become a weapon for recovering stolen goods
Facing corrupt elements who are still fleeing and stubbornly resisting, this is not the first time that the confiscation of illegal proceeds has demonstrated its power.
On November 17, 2020, the Intermediate People's Court of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region publicly sentenced the suspect Bai Jing in the case of the application for the confiscation of illegal proceeds of corruption and ruled that 9 properties purchased by Bai Jing using the illegal proceeds were confiscated.
Bai Jingyuan, Director of the Investment Division of the Financial Market Department of the Agricultural Bank of China, fled to Canada on July 31, 2013 on suspicion of an official crime. He and Xu Jin and Liu Fang belong to the “hundred red-pass personnel”.
In the past, fleeing corrupt elements "ran away if they were greedy, and just ran away." Now this situation is gone forever.
The reason why the confiscation procedure of illegal gains can play such a key role is that as a legal means, it has served the work of chasing escaped and stolen stolen goods since its formulation.
Its continuous improvement and perfection also complement the practice of chasing fleeing and recovering stolen goods.
In order to rigorous the legal network, when the Criminal Procedure Law was revised in 2012, the procedure for the confiscation of illegal proceeds was stipulated for the first time, providing a direct legal basis for the confiscation of illegal proceeds and other property involved in the case of criminal suspects and defendants fleeing and hiding, or dying.
After the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Law, the first battle was achieved through the confiscation of illegal proceeds.
On May 9, 2015, "100 Hongtong personnel" Li Huabo was repatriated to the country.
On August 29 of the previous year, Li Huabo opened a court on the confiscation of illegal proceeds.
The procuratorial organ of Shangrao City in Jiangxi Province pointed out that Li Huabo was suspected of corruption crimes and was unable to appear in the case after a year in hiding, and requested the court to recover his illegal income of 29.53 million yuan and other property involved in the case according to law.
On March 3, 2015, the Intermediate People’s Court of Shangrao City ruled in the first instance of Li Huabo’s illegal income confiscated case. The public funds of more than 29 million yuan transferred by Li Huabo to Singapore were Li Huabo’s illegal income and should be confiscated in accordance with the law. This case has also become our country. "The first case of overseas recovery of stolen goods."
As the existing legislation and related judicial interpretations provide comparative principles, there are many confusions in the application of the law and it is difficult to meet the needs of case handling.
On January 5, 2017, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued the “Regulations on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Procedures for the Confiscating of Illegal Income in Cases of Criminal Suspects, Defendants’ Fleeing and Concealing, and Deaths”, the scope of application, basic concepts, and proof of the procedures Standards and other issues have been clearly stipulated to further promote the standardization and uniform application of the procedure, and to form a benign interaction and docking with other countries' mechanisms for tracing and recovering stolen goods.
The confiscation of illegal gains of Huang Yanlan, a "hundred red-handed officer", benefited from this.
Huang Yanlan fled abroad in December 2001 and has not been brought back to justice.
Since Huang Yanlan used the funds to purchase the real estate involved in the case from public funds of the state-owned company, the procuratorial organs initiated the confiscation procedure of illegal income in accordance with the law.
On November 15, 2018, the Intermediate People's Court of Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region ruled to confiscate Huang Yanlan's 23 sets of properties involved in the case in Shanghai, as well as the proceeds from the sale and lease of some of the properties involved.
On July 5, 2019, the Higher People's Court of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region rejected Huang Yanlan's appeal according to law and upheld the original ruling.
After the reform of the national supervisory system, the supervisory organ became the organizer of the cases of fleeing and recovering stolen goods. The supervisory organ requested the People's Procuratorate to apply to the People's Court for confiscation of illegal gains in accordance with legal procedures.
In January 2020, the Intermediate People's Court of Yueyang City, Hunan Province issued a public sentence on the case of "Hongtong personnel" Peng Xufeng and his wife Jia Siyu accepting bribes and money laundering illegal income confiscation application, and ruled that the illegal income of Peng Xufeng and Jia Siyu in the country should be confiscated. RMB 104 million, gold products, 5 properties in Australia, Cyprus, Singapore, Saint Kitts and Nevis, a total of 2.5 million euros of national debt, and 500,000 US dollars; insufficient recovery of illegal income from Peng Xufeng and Jass Part, continue to recover.
On September 20 this year, the State Supervision Commission announced the Regulations for the Implementation of the Supervision Law, which made more detailed provisions on the confiscation procedures of illegal income applied by supervisory agencies: The freezing and confiscation rulings shall be recognized and implemented by the relevant countries (regions) and returned”.
"The special confiscation procedure for illegal proceeds was initiated in response to the transfer of illegal assets abroad by corrupt individuals in an attempt to evade the dilemma of my country's legal sanctions." Yang Chao, a researcher at the G20 Anti-Corruption, Fleeing and Recovery Research Center, believes that the implementation regulations of the Supervision Law stipulate that, Supervisory agencies can "request relevant countries (regions) to recover relevant illegal income and other property involved in the case and return them in accordance with the law." This is also an important manifestation of countries fulfilling their obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption and combating corruption crimes. "At present, the international community Most of the countries above are parties to the "United Nations Convention against Corruption."
Hit a combination of chasing and pursuing stolen goods in accordance with regulations and laws
In 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the International Criminal Judicial Assistance Law, listed the National Supervisory Commission as the competent authority for international criminal judicial assistance, and improved the international criminal judicial assistance mechanism for official crime cases.
The promulgation of the International Criminal Judicial Assistance Law has improved the legal basis for my country’s foreign cooperation, making the "United Nations Convention against Corruption," the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the criminal judicial assistance treaties signed between my country and foreign countries, real in the country. Landing".
"The International Criminal Judicial Assistance Law has filled the domestic legal gap in the international cooperation of anti-corruption criminal judicial assistance." Huang Feng, a professor at the Institute of Criminal Law Science of Beijing Normal University, said that it changed the previous anti-corruption criminal judicial assistance that my country cannot rely on. Situation.
The practical development of the work of tracing and recovering stolen property has promoted and promoted the improvement of the foreign-related legal system.
A series of key legislation in the field of fleeing and recovering stolen goods has provided support for the anti-corruption international pursuit of fleeing and stolen stolen goods to be standardized and ruled by law.
In 2019, the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued the “Regulations for Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision Organs Handling Anti-corruption, Escape and Recovery and Other Foreign-related Cases (for Trial Implementation),” emphasizing the need to coordinate the use of international cooperation resources in various aspects and make use of judicial assistance and law enforcement cooperation under the framework of multilateral and bilateral treaties. Channels to carry out the pursuit of escape work.
The promulgation and enforcement of the Regulations for the Implementation of the Supervision Law has laid down detailed regulations on how supervisory agencies carry out extradition, repatriation, and prosecution in other places, and other international judicial law enforcement cooperation.
With the deepening of the reform of the national supervision system, the use of legal methods such as extradition and repatriation to pursue fugitives has increasingly become an important choice for supervisory agencies.
The Yao Jinqi case is a typical one.
On November 30, 2018, Yao Jinqi, the former executive deputy magistrate of Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province, who had fled for 13 years, was extradited from Bulgaria and returned to China.
This is the first successful extradition case after the establishment of the State Supervision Commission.
"From the issuance of a red wanted order against Yao Jinqi through Interpol to his extradition to return to China, it took less than two months to complete the extradition legal process that usually takes months or even years. This successful practice reflects recent years. Actively carry out the effectiveness of anti-corruption international cooperation." said the relevant person in charge of the Zhejiang Provincial Supervision Commission.
Huang Feng believes that after the establishment of the State Supervision Commission, the organization and coordination role of the supervisory agency has changed. From the previous coordination and organization of other competent agencies to carry out international cooperation in the pursuit of escape and stolen property with foreign countries, it has become a step forward.
This increases the authority when making direct contacts with foreign countries.
In order to broaden the channels for pursuing escape and recovery in accordance with regulations and laws, my country has promoted the signing of extradition treaties and judicial assistance treaties with more countries, and improved the anti-corruption law enforcement cooperation treaty system.
Up to now, my country has concluded 170 extradition treaties, mutual legal assistance treaties, and asset return and sharing agreements with 82 countries, and signed financial intelligence exchange cooperation agreements with 59 countries and regions. Anti-corruption law enforcement cooperation network.
The anti-corruption international network of fleeing and recovering stolen goods is becoming tighter and tighter.
Case progress
Xu Jin used to be Deputy Secretary and District Chief of Huangpi District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, and Director of Wuhan Development and Reform Commission.
Liu Fang is the wife of Xu Jin and was the general manager of the claims management department of PICC Hubei branch.
On May 19, 2011, Xu Jin and Liu Fang fled to the United States.
On November 2, 2011, the People's Procuratorate of Hubei Province filed a case against Xu Jin for investigation.
On February 23, 2012, Liu Fang was filed for investigation.
On July 5, 2012, Interpol issued a red arrest warrant against Xu Jin and Liu Fang.
On April 22, 2015, the China National Central Bureau of INTERPOL released a red wanted list for 100 people who were suspected of fleeing national officials and persons involved in important corruption cases. Xu Jin and Liu Fang were among them.
On June 6, 2018, the Central Anti-Corruption Coordination Group's International Office of Fleeing and Stolen Recovery issued an announcement regarding clues related to some expatriates. Xu Jin and his wife Liu Fang were both on the list.
On August 20, 2021, the Intermediate People's Court of Wuhan City, Hubei Province opened a hearing to hear Xu Jin's application for the confiscation of illegal proceeds from corruption and bribery.
On November 15, 2021, Xu Jin’s application for the confiscation of illegal proceeds from corruption and bribery was sentenced: 780.67 mu of state-owned land use rights, 8 properties, 3 parking spaces and 1 Audi car were confiscated.
Legal basis
The procedure for confiscation of illegal income of criminal suspects, defendants, or death cases refers to the specific methods, methods, and steps for recovering their illegal income and other property involved in certain cases when the suspect or defendant escapes or dies. .
Article 298 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates: “For major crimes such as corruption and bribery crimes, terrorist crimes, etc., criminal suspects and defendants are not allowed to come to the case after one year, or commit crimes. If the suspect or defendant dies and the illegal income and other property involved in the case shall be recovered in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law, the People’s Procuratorate may apply to the People’s Court for the confiscation of the illegal income."
The procedure for confiscation of illegal proceeds of criminal suspects, defendants, and death cases is a means of recovery specially advocated by the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Chapter 5 "Recovery of Assets" of the Convention specifically requires Article 54 Paragraph 1 Each State Party shall, in accordance with its domestic laws, "consider taking necessary measures to enable the perpetrator to confiscate such property without criminal conviction in situations where the perpetrator cannot be prosecuted due to death, absconding or absence, or in other relevant circumstances. "Therefore, my country's current special confiscation procedures have a solid foundation in international law and can be universally recognized by various countries' asset recovery and related international cooperation laws.
Our reporter Wang Zhuo