[Case Review]

Cui, originally engaging in the contract management of KTV, contacted with Gong (who engaged in KTV management too) in January 2018, and jointly planned the employment swindling for ¡°making a fortune¡±. After the plan was fixed, Cui arranged the division of labor and carried out the employment swindling. First of all, Cui and Gong arranged some persons to release false employment information on such online platforms as ¡°ganji.com¡± and ¡°58.com¡±, attracting the job hunters to four KTVs for interview through such conditions as ¡°meals and accommodation included, deposit free¡± and ¡°daily settlement with high remuneration, no arrears of wage¡±.

Later, Geng, Dong, et al, acting as the interviewing managers, charged the job hunters a fee ranging from several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan under different names, including costume cost, IC cost and training cost. After that, Dong continued to defraud the victims of money with the excuse of arranging a better position for the victim if the victim offered some rewards for go-between. The defrauded money was shared among Cui et al as originally agreed.

After several time of swindling, Cui et al informed Dong et al of the information of the job hunters, for conducting the next step of ¡°work¡±, i.e. arranging a job not in line with what the job hunter was looking for, but a tiresome and dirty job, without any remuneration during the probation period. Many job hunters would shrink back from difficulties and would not require for further arrangement of work, but some job hunters would claim for refund of the money they had paid.

Until July 2018 when the crime was revealed, Cui et al obtained over RMB 40,000 through employment swindling, and the victims reached over 40.

[Law Interpretation with Case]

After the trial, Shanghai Hongkou Court concluded that, Cui, Gong, Geng and Dong et al, in collusion and with a view of illegal possession, defrauded the property of others for multiple times by releasing false information in the internet. In this case, the defendant Cui was under other serious circumstances, and Gong, Geng and Dong defrauded a large amount of money. Their behaviors constituted the crime of swindling. This case is a case of joint offense. As the defendants Gong, Geng and Dong truthfully confessed their crime, they deserved a lighter punishment according to law. After the case was revealed, as the defendants Cui, Gong and Geng, with the help of their families, returned part of the defrauded money on their own initiative, they could be imposed with a lighter punishment according to the circumstances. Finally, the Court judged that, as the defendant Cui committed the crime of swindling, Cui was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of four years, and penalized with RMB 30,000; as Gong committed the crime of swindling, Gong was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of one year and six months, and penalized with RMB 5,000; as Geng committed the crime of swindling, Geng was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of seven months, and penalized with RMB 2,000; as Dong committed the crime of swindling, Dong was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of eight months, and penalized with RMB 4,000. (References to the parties in this paper are pseudonyms)

[Relevant Laws]

Criminal Law of the People¡¯s Republic of China

Article 266     Whoever swindles public or private money or property, if the amount is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the amount is huge, or if there are other serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined; if the amount is especially huge, or if there are other especially serious circumstances, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment and shall also be fined or be sentenced to confiscation of property, except as otherwise specifically provided in this Law.

Article 64  All money and property illegally obtained by a criminal shall be recovered, or compensation shall be ordered; the lawful property of the victim shall be returned without delay; and contrabands and possessions of the criminal that are used in the commission of the crime shall be confiscated. All the confiscated money and property and fines shall be turned over to the State treasury, and no one may misappropriate or privately dispose of them.