Under the guise of market transactions, it actually engages in profit transfer and illegal profit
Strictly investigate power and money transactions behind real estate transactions
Our reporter Han Yadong
"The price is low, and the house is good. How can it easily fall on me? Buying a house at a low price, saying a thousand dollars and ten thousand, is nothing more than my status, my value, and my power. Take advantage of the benefits.” Recently, party members and cadres at all levels in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province received a confession from Xu Hanxing, the former deputy secretary of the party group and deputy director of the Jinhua Science and Technology Bureau, which described in detail how he accepted bribes for buying houses at low prices question.
Also issued at the same time is the "Implementation Plan on Carrying Out the Special Governance of Prominent Issues Affecting Pro-Qing Political-Business Relations" jointly issued by the Yiwu Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Organization Department of the Municipal Party Committee. reiterated.
Cases of accepting bribes by buying houses at low prices and selling houses at high prices have occurred frequently.
In November 2022, the Shandong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision notified Zhang Jun, former member of the Standing Committee of the Qingdao Municipal Party Committee and former head of the Propaganda Department, that "under the guise of 'market transactions', he engaged in power-for-money transactions by selling real estate at high prices many times, and illegally received huge amounts of property"; In the same month, the Shenyang City Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province notified Wang Haiyu, former party secretary and deputy director of the Shenyang Urban Construction Administration Bureau, "to obtain huge profits by buying houses at low prices or selling houses at high prices by taking advantage of the influence of his position." Regarding the issue of illegal real estate transactions for profit, the discipline inspection commissions and supervisory committees at all levels insist on the integration of case handling, supervision, and warnings, promote reform and governance through cases, and continue to release comprehensive effects.
He bought a row house in the name of his parents, which was 2.44 million yuan lower than the market price. After making a big mistake, he voluntarily surrendered
In his confession for violating discipline and law, Xu Hanxing wrote: "Among the mistakes I made, the most important thing is to buy a certain row house at a low price."
On May 29, 2019, Xu Hanxing, who had just visited the Jinhua Education Base of Integrity a few days ago, voluntarily surrendered to the Jinhua Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
The reason why Xu Hanxing voluntarily surrendered to the case is closely related to Jinhua City’s launch of the warning education month and the special action to clean up party members and cadres’ illegal borrowing, illegal shareholding, illegal real estate transactions, and standardization of “one family, two systems”.
In August 2013, in a certain place in Dongyang, Zhejiang, Xu Hanxing, who was then head of the Organization Department of the Yiwu Municipal Party Committee, bought a row house in the name of his parents.
After the price was determined, the house price was 2.44 million yuan lower than the market price at that time.
Another leading cadre of the city who purchased real estate in the same community at that time became a negative teaching material for the warning education month activities, so Xu Hanxing was "always very uneasy, even a little anxious".
Why was Xu Hanxing able to buy this villa at such a low price?
The person in charge of the real estate development company said: "Xu Hanxing is from Dongyang, and we are fellow villagers. He bought the house on his own initiative. I want to show some face and the price should be lower, but the reason why I agree to sell it to him at a lower price lies in his leadership." In terms of cadre status. I hope to have the opportunity to be taken care of in the area where he serves."
In fact, this is not the first time Xu Hanxing has bought a house at such a low price.
In June 2012, under the guise of his mother-in-law, Xu Hanxing ordered a townhouse in a community and paid part of the house payment of 2 million yuan.
At the beginning of 2013, Xu Hanxing began to urge the person in charge of the real estate company to resell the row house.
In order for Xu Hanxing to obtain the so-called "investment income" as soon as possible, the person in charge transferred 4.2 million yuan to the bank account designated by Xu Hanxing three times from July to September 2013 before the townhouse was actually resold.
In just over a year, Xu Hanxing received 2.2 million yuan for reselling "profit".
"Seeing the profit of 2.2 million yuan from the sale of the house, this is a huge sum of money that I have never seen before. I have doubts, entanglements, and fears. I doubt how the investment of more than one year will have so much money. To make a profit, I wondered whether I should ask for the money, and I was also afraid that something would happen if I asked for the money. In the final choice, the temptation of profit once again prevailed." Xu Hanxing confessed.
Xu Hanxing also confessed that the reason why he bought the townhouse in the name of his mother-in-law was because he was “worried that investing in real estate would involve reporting on personal matters and explaining the source of funds, for fear that it would affect his career in the end.”
After Jinhua City launched the special action of "Three Clean-ups and One Regulation", Xu Hanxing promptly returned the money to the person in charge of the real estate company, colluded with him many times, and described the proceeds of 2.2 million yuan from the house purchase as "borrowing".
He also prepared many excuses for himself, such as, "My house is late", "I am a cadre from other places, and I have no working relationship with the developer", etc., in order to escape the severe punishment of party discipline and state laws.
However, all of this is nothing more than trying to cover up the truth.
In the end, Xu Hanxing chose to take the initiative to explain the problem to the organization.
In August 2019, Xu Hanxing was "double opened".
In March 2020, the court sentenced him to five years in prison for accepting bribes and a fine of 300,000 yuan. The illegal gains were confiscated and turned over to the state treasury.
Buying low and selling high, accepting price differences as gifts, gaining profits in disguise from the right to dispose of houses...real estate has become a tool for individual cadres to accept bribes in disguise
In recent years, the methods used by the "hunters" to win over and corrupt leading cadres have become more and more covert, and high-value commodities such as real estate have become tools for individual cadres to deceive and accept bribes in disguise.
Buy a house at a low price.
In October 2020, Jiang Dechuan, former secretary of the Party Committee of Fengcheng Town, Fengxian District, Shanghai, was notified of "double opening". In December of the same year, Jiang Dechuan was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined 1.5 million yuan for accepting bribes.
Among the facts of his violations of discipline and law include using his power to purchase office buildings developed by a group company that has a subordinate relationship with the management and service objects for himself and two businessman friends at a price lower than the market price of 3,873,840 yuan. .
Sell house at high price.
Zhao Huiming, the former Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Housing and Construction Bureau of Xiacheng District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, wanted to sell the house under his name. The person in charge of a certain company knew that the price of the house was higher than the market price, but he still bought it at a price of 2.3 million yuan. Zhao Huiming was given 100,000 yuan in cash on the grounds of compensation for decoration and electrical appliances.
After evaluation, Zhao Huiming made a profit of 510,000 yuan.
Qiao Liming accepts the price difference as a gift.
In April 2016, Zhang Deping, the former party secretary and director of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative in Kaihua County, Zhejiang Province, verbally booked 2 houses with Yao XX, the general manager of a construction group, paid a reservation payment of 200,000 yuan, and signed a house agreement, agreeing to confirm the purchase immediately Pay the balance, the deposit will be refunded and 1% interest will be paid if you do not purchase.
In January 2018, Yao Moumou gave Zhang Deping 20,400 yuan in the name of deposit interest on the house payment; in February of the same year, Yao Moumou sold another house that had not gone through the reservation formalities at the request of Zhang Deping, and sold it in the name of the price difference of the house sales. About 549,600 yuan was given to Zhang Deping.
Zhang Deping was "double opened" in November 2020 due to other problems.
In February 2021, he was sentenced to four years and six months in prison, and fined 280,000 yuan, and his illegal income was confiscated.
Gain profits in a disguised form by disposing of houses.
In 2017, Zhang Liansen, a former fourth-level researcher in Xicheng Street, Huangyan District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, took advantage of his position to provide assistance to the construction party of a real estate project in his jurisdiction.
At the beginning of 2018, in order to thank Zhang Liansen, the project manager handed over a row house to him, saying that he could buy it or resell it at the record price.
During the Spring Festival of the same year, the market price of the terraced houses in this real estate continued to rise.
Zhang Liansen sought a "suitable" price to sell the townhouse in his hand.
In addition to paying the house purchase price to the company according to the record price, the buyer will also pay Zhang Liansen a total of 300,000 yuan higher than the record price.
After excluding agency fees, Zhang Liansen actually made a profit of 200,000 yuan.
In December 2021, Zhang Liansen was notified of "double opening".
In June 2022, Zhang Liansen was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for taking bribes.
"Transactional bribery is one of the new forms of bribery that have occurred frequently in recent years, and bribery of buying houses at low prices and selling houses at high prices has become a high-frequency case of transactional bribery due to the characteristics of large amounts involved, various forms, and strong concealment." Taizhou City Wu Zhensheng, director of the case trial office of the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, analyzed that the common feature of such cases is that the intertwining of bribery behavior and market behavior is more subtle, showing the characteristics of stealth variation, renovation and upgrading of corruption means, and it is necessary to thoroughly investigate and implement precise treatment. .
Focusing on the investigation and verification of whether the transaction price is reasonable and whether the relationship between the two parties is affected by public power, etc., the joint taxation department screens transactions that obviously violate market rules
The "Regulations on Disciplinary Actions of the Communist Party of China" stipulates that party members and cadres must correctly exercise the powers entrusted by the people, be honest and honest, and oppose any behaviors that abuse their powers and seek personal gain.
The "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Accepting Bribery" issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate stipulates that state functionaries use the convenience of their positions to seek benefits for the client and pay the client at a price that is significantly lower or higher than the market. Anyone who buys or sells houses, cars, etc., or illegally accepts property from the client in other forms of transactions shall be punished as accepting bribes.
Under the guise of "purchasing in lieu of bribes", both the bribery and the bribery usually have complete procedures and compliance procedures, and the bribery often interprets their behaviors such as buying low and selling high as market behavior, and some bribery behaviors reflect a certain degree of optionality in terms of time , making investigation more difficult.
Li Lingbin, deputy director of the Sixth Inspection and Investigation Office of the Taizhou Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, analyzed that from a formal point of view, there are market transactions between the two parties, but in essence, their buying and selling behaviors obviously violate the normal market transaction laws and violate the basic principle of equivalent exchange. in principle.
"No matter how reasonable this kind of transaction is on the surface, as long as the interest exchange relationship between public officials and trustees is grasped, and the transaction price is obviously inconsistent with market conditions, the fig leaf of benefit transmission can be uncovered."
Yin Weidong, deputy director of the Sixth Inspection and Investigation Office of the Disciplinary and Supervisory Committee of Fengxian District, Shanghai, introduced that when investigating Jiang Dechuan's low-price house purchase case, the investigators investigated three "coincidences" - Jiang Dechuan and the house sales company had a relationship of serving and being served; Shortly after the township enterprises in Fengcheng Town ordered office buildings from the company, Jiang Dechuan and his friends ordered commercial housing from the company;
It was finally verified: Jiang Dechuan took advantage of the convenience created by his position and power to seek personal gain for himself and his friends, and bought commercial houses with "super VIP" house purchase discounts, which touched the "red line" of party discipline and state laws.
Li Lingbin also pointed out that when investigating and handling housing transaction-type bribery cases, more attention should be paid to evaluation, amount determination, qualitative analysis, transaction methods, etc.: first, whether the evaluation price is objective, whether the evaluation benchmark is reasonable, whether the evaluation qualification is complete, and whether the evaluation procedure Whether it is standardized; the second is whether there is a management and service relationship between the two parties, and whether the leading cadres have used the convenience of their positions to seek benefits for the house buyer or the actual investor; the third is whether the transaction form is normal, whether there is a lack of motivation for buying a house, backup yin and yang contracts, large sums Abnormal situations such as cash transactions and the addition of intermediary trading links.
When investigating the case of Xu Hanxing, the Jinhua Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervisory Committee carried out investigations and verifications closely around whether the transaction price was reasonable, whether the transaction form was normal, and whether the relationship between the two parties was affected by public power.
After learning about the fact that he bought a house at a low price, the comrades in the task force asked Xu Hanxing straightforwardly: "Why did you sell the house to you at a low price?" No. Why did you sell the house to you? It’s not because you are a leading cadre.”
Regardless of "buy low" or "sell high", it will involve real estate transfer procedures, and a certain amount of taxes and fees must be paid.
Since the "abnormality" of the total price will directly manifest as the "abnormality" of the tax amount, this also determines that the deed tax payment monitoring is an effective starting point for regulating transaction supervision.
Disciplinary commissions and supervisory commissions in Yuhuan, Zhejiang, Pizhou, Jiangsu and other places have joined forces with taxation departments to promote information construction in the real estate sector. Through big data platforms such as the "Real Estate Transaction Tax Management System", three mechanisms have been established, including information sharing, joint supervision, and clue feedback, to screen in a timely manner. Transactions that obviously violate the laws of the market, and timely identify possible corruption.
Carry out special rectification on problems such as low-price house purchases by leading cadres, strictly investigate bribery in illegal real estate transactions, and continue to do a good job in case investigation "the second half of the article"
Zhao Yong, the former party secretary and president of Tianjin Branch of China Guangfa Bank, used his position to influence the purchase of houses at low prices; Su Zequn, the former member of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee and the former executive deputy mayor of the municipal government, accepted other people’s property in the form of purchasing houses at low prices...Disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies at all levels insisted on investigating and prosecuting together At the same time, severely crack down on behaviors such as bribery in disguised forms of illegal real estate transactions, and continuously improve the effectiveness of governance.
Carry out special rectification for leading cadres to buy houses at low prices.
Zhejiang launched an action to deal with illegal real estate transactions involving leading cadres at the provincial, city and county levels, and issued the "Zhejiang Provincial Regulations on Preventing Leading Cadres from Violating Discipline and Illegal Behaviors in Real Estate Transactions."
It is stipulated that leading cadres shall not participate in illegal real estate transactions without obtaining a commercial housing sales permit in real estate transactions, and shall not engage in illegal speculation and speculation of "house tickets" and "unplanned properties", and participate in the manipulation of "number lottery". Leading cadres are listed 10 kinds of prohibited behaviors implemented by using power or position influence in real estate transactions, specifically including soliciting and receiving real estate and house purchase funds from management and service objects and other units or individuals related to exercising power, at a significantly lower price Buy real estate at market prices, or sell real estate at prices significantly higher than market prices, etc.
Do detailed real estate checks, and weave a strict supervision and management network.
The Commission for Disciplinary Inspection and Supervision of Xianju County, Zhejiang Province strictly supervises and urges the implementation of the "Regulations on Reporting Personal Matters by Leading Cadres" and "Measures for Handling the Results of Reporting and Checking Results on Personal Matters of Leading Cadres", and cooperates with the Organization Department of the County Party Committee and the County Real Estate Registration Center to carry out the personal real estate of leading cadres in the county. Register special governance, investigate and deal with real estate transactions that obviously violate market rules.
In response to the problem of party members and cadres buying houses at low prices in violation of regulations discovered during the investigation of the case, the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Committee of Pizhou City, Jiangsu Province, jointly carried out supervision and inspection across the city. 6 systems.
Continue to do a good job in case investigation and handling "the second half of the article".
After the relevant cases occurred, Jinhua City issued the "Regulations on Preventing Public Officials from Illegal Lending, Shareholding, Real Estate Transactions, and "One Family, Two Systems" Interest Conflicts (Trial)" on the basis of "three clean-ups and one regulation". In conjunction with the Organization Department of the Municipal Party Committee, a special working group was set up, and in accordance with the principle of "leniency in self-inspection and strictness in verification", public officials of all units in the city are required to carry out comprehensive self-inspection and self-correction of conflicts of interest such as low-price house purchases, and sign a letter of commitment. % ratio to carry out spot checks and verifications, and investigate and deal with issues such as self-inspection dishonesty and incomplete corrections.
Strictly investigate bribery in illegal real estate transactions.
While strictly investigating bribe-takers, the Xianju County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision strictly investigates bribery in real estate transactions such as "oral reservations" and low-price premiums, cutting off the interest chain of "hunting" and being willing to "hunt", and breaking the transaction of power and money people network.
(China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News)