Impersonating a reporter to extort 94 times and 9 people sentenced to prison [Using drones to take aerial photos of several sand and gravel quarries and concrete mixing stations in Hebei, asking enterprises or grass-roots government workers for money on the grounds of exposing pollution]
A gang of 9 fake journalists roamed the sand and gravel yard and concrete mixing plant in many places in Hebei to extort extortion on the grounds of exposing corporate pollution.
On June 11, 2021, when four members of the gang were driving to find their targets, they were arrested by the police and brought to justice.
According to the police of the Hejian City Public Security Bureau who investigated the case, the gang members committed crimes, some were responsible for taking pictures, some were responsible for extortion, and some were responsible for collecting money.
Each extortion ranged from 500 yuan to 5,000 yuan, and the photographers were divided into 300 yuan for each aerial photography completed.
On June 10, 2022, the People's Court of Hejian City, Hebei Province made a first-instance judgment: the defendants Liu Tao, Zeng Xiangdong and others took advantage of the country's strict ecological and environmental protection policies to use drones from September 2020 to June 2021 In Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, Cangzhou and other places in Hebei Province, he filmed a number of sand and gravel quarries and concrete mixing plants, and then pretended to be local media reporters in Hebei, and threatened to expose or report them. A total of 74 people were extorted and extorted 94 times, involving more than 126,000 cases. Yuan.
Liu Tao, Zeng Xiangdong and other 9 people were convicted of extortion and were sentenced to four years and ten months to one year in prison, and fined ranging from 30,000 to 3,000 yuan.
Unlicensed business blackmailed three times
Within two months, three groups of "reporters" came to the concrete mixing plant operated by Li Bing in Mafang Village, Shucheng Township, Hejian.
Li Bing recalled that one day in March 2021, he received an unfamiliar call with the caller ID of Shijiazhuang. The other party claimed to be a reporter, "The other party said that the sand and gravel piled up in my mixing station was not covered properly. If it was reported to the superior, It will be completely banned." And the other party also said that there is evidence in his hands.
After the two sides added WeChat to each other, Li Bing received several aerial photos from the other party.
After comparison, it is confirmed that the photo scene is consistent with the enterprise site, and there is indeed a problem that the thatch cover is not in place.
According to the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law", the storage of cement, lime and other materials that are prone to fugitive dust should be sealed; if it cannot be sealed, a tight enclosure should be set up not lower than the height of the stack, and effective coverage measures should be taken to prevent dust pollution.
Violation of this provision shall be ordered by the competent departments of ecology and environment of the government at or above the county level to make corrections according to their duties, and a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan will be imposed;
Li Bing said frankly that apart from the lack of the thatch cover, his company had no formalities at that time, so he took the initiative to communicate with the other party, hoping to spend money to solve it privately.
Li Bing recalled that the other party did not directly accept the transfer, but sent a QR code for the payment and charged 2,000 yuan.
He said that during that time, he encountered three groups of "reporters" in a row, all of which were paid "privately", and he did not dare to call the police for fear of being exposed.
In May 2021, after Li Bing's mixing plant was banned by the government, he was no longer afraid of retaliation, so he reported the case to the Migezhuang Criminal Police Squadron of the Hejian City Public Security Bureau.
Yang Dongwei, the instructor of the Midegezhuang Criminal Police Squadron, introduced to the Beijing News reporter that during the investigation, he also received a clue from the superior Cangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, which was related to the case.
The police quickly identified a gang of nine including Liu Tao.
On June 11, 2021, when four members of the gang were driving in Xingtang County, Shijiazhuang to find their targets, they were arrested by Hejian police and brought to justice.
The Hejian police found out that from September 2020 to June 2021, a gang of fake journalists such as Liu Tao used drones and other tools to commit crimes and flowed through the six municipal districts of Xingtai, Shijiazhuang, Hengshui, Cangzhou, Baoding and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province. Home sand and gravel quarries and mixing stations take aerial photos, and use video or photos as "evidence" to ask for money from enterprises, individuals or grassroots governments.
According to the dossier, the fake journalist gang committed 94 extortions to 74 people, demanding a total of 126,100 yuan.
Clear division of labor for taking pictures, extortion, and collection
In the gang of fake reporters, with the exception of the suspect Liu Tao, who is from Jiangsu, the other eight are from Jiangxi.
Liu Tao, 30 years old, with a junior high school education, is a farmer in Xiaodian Village, Donghai County, Jiangsu Province.
He explained to the police handling the case that he met a person on the Internet, and the other party told him that he could make money by taking pictures of polluting enterprises.
After that, he met Zeng Xiangdong on social networking sites. The other members of the gang were fellow villagers or relatives and friends whom Zeng Xiangdong found.
According to Yang Dongwei, a police officer who handled the case, the suspect Liu Tao was the boss behind the scenes and a master-level figure. He taught the suspect Zeng Xiangdong and his girlfriend Yin Jinhua to fly drones.
After that, Zeng Xiangdong "passed on the help" and attracted his friend Liu Genfu to join the gang and taught the drone operation technology.
The indictment of the Hejian City People's Procuratorate shows that Liu Tao and others were initially led by Liu Tao in their criminal activities.
From October to November 2020, 22 crimes were committed, all of which were taken by Zeng Xiangdong and his girlfriend Yin Jinhua to find the target of the crime for aerial photography.
Yang Dongwei introduced that after the gang members completed aerial photography of the target of the crime, they sent the photos to the boss Liu Tao.
Liu Tao is responsible for inquiring the company's phone number, sometimes calling the company directly to extort money, and sometimes calling the government office by inquiring about the township government where the aerial photography company is located. The government office will then notify the specific environmental protection staff to handle the matter.
During the interrogation, the suspects explained to the police that they all directly told the business owner or government personnel over the phone that the sand and gravel materials stored by the business were not properly covered and there was dust pollution. Let us see how to solve it.
Under normal circumstances, business owners or government officials will ask for "private settlement."
Police officer Yang Dongwei learned from interrogating the suspect and questioning the victim that the fake reporter said that he would not report, and he could not go there for nothing.
When the victim business owner sees that the other party's attitude has loosened, they will cater to them and say that they will not let you go away in vain, and will pay for accommodation and vehicle fuel.
According to the gang's internal regulations, the collection of each extortion cannot be less than 500 yuan.
Hejian police investigation found that the fake reporter gang had a certain degree of vigilance.
The WeChat used in the crime was not registered with his real name, and the payment code sent to the company was also rented by the suspect Chen Hui.
Every time Chen Hui received the transfer money from the victim, it was transferred to the main criminal Liu Tao or Zeng Xiangdong.
Some enterprises and grass-roots cadres "afraid of trouble" spend money to eliminate disasters
Liu Tao's gang of fake journalists has repeatedly succeeded in extorting companies. They seem to have mastered the soft underbelly of the company and the grass-roots government: reporting that the company's lax cover will cause dust, which will bring "trouble" to the company and the grass-roots government where the company is located.
According to the public information of Hebei News Network, in October 2018, Hebei Province implemented the township air quality ranking notification system according to the city, and implemented accountability for the townships that continued to rank low in air quality.
Liu Tao and others also used this to extort some grassroots government workers.
According to the judgment of the Hejian City People's Court, the court found out that on November 11, 2020, after the defendant Zeng Xiangdong and other three took aerial photos of the Xiangsen Mixing Station in Longzhou Town, Xingtang County, Shijiazhuang, Liu Tao pretended to be a reporter to Longzhou Town. Relevant government staff called, saying that the mixing station was not covered properly, and threatened to expose the pollution problem, demanding 2,000 yuan for "hard work".
On July 5, 2022, the staff member confirmed to a reporter from the Beijing News that this was indeed the case.
He recalled that at that time he was the director of the local ecological environment institute. After receiving a report from a "reporter", he found that the company involved did have pollution problems. After advising the company for rectification, he gave the The other party transferred 2,000 yuan privately.
According to the judgment of the Hejian City People's Court, the court found that Liu Tao's gang of fake journalists committed a total of 94 crimes of extortion, of which 29 times, grass-roots township government staff participated in helping companies "spend money to make peace."
According to statistics from a reporter from the Beijing News, it involves eight grass-roots government workers in Hejianxing Village, Shijing Village, Shaheqiao Town, Cangzhou, and Suning Town and Liangcun Town in Suning County.
In addition, two staff members of the governments of Yingli Town and Dongzhuosu Township in Jinzhou, Shijiazhuang, and three staff members of the Governments of Longzhou Town and Koudou Town, Xingtang County, once transferred money from the fake reporter gang.
Xu Rong, a lawyer in Beijing, believes that civil servants should abide by the law, and must not be inactive, inaction, dereliction of duty, or delaying work.
Hebei launched a special campaign to "crack down on counterfeiting and knockdown"
The facts ascertained by the court show that during the extortion process, Liu Tao’s gang of fake reporters has repeatedly impersonated reporters from Hebei Economic Daily, Hebei Science and Technology News, Hebei Workers’ Daily, Hebei Youth Daily and other news organizations.
In June 2022, the Propaganda Department of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, together with 11 departments including the Provincial Court and the Provincial Procuratorate, launched a special campaign against news extortion and fake news in 2022.
Among them, cracking down on news extortion and fake reporters is one of the main tasks.
Hebei Province announced the reporting telephone numbers of the leading group office of the special action of "Crackdown on Counterfeiting and Treating Knockouts" at 0311-87904357 and 87904358. It is hoped that the victims can actively report relevant clues through the public reporting telephone.
Liu Tao, the presiding judge of the fake reporter extortion gang case, introduced that during the trial, the nine defendants voluntarily pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, and voluntarily refunded the victims money and prepaid fines to the court.
After the first-instance judgment, no appeal was filed.
(Li Bing is a pseudonym in the text)
Beijing News reporter Li Yingqiang