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Swindling people out of a huge amount of money by falsely claiming to help people book the tickets of a concert of “God of Songs” The Court: such behavior is aimed at illegal possession of others’
[2019-07-01]

   

property and shall constitute a crime of fraud

Jacky Cheung is a famous singer and also an actor. He is very popular and is deemed as “God of Songs”. Two persons believed that it was difficult to get a ticket of a concert of “God of Song”, so they claimed to resell tickets and swindled two victims of RMB1.07 million. The other day, Shanghai Xuhui District People’s Court (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Xuhui Court”) tried the case publicly. The Defendant Wu was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of ten years and six months, deprivation of political rights for one year and a fine of RMB50,000. The Defendant Liu was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of three years and six months and a fine of RMB20, 000.

[Case Review]

Wu and Liu had engaged in the reselling of tickets from 2012. In October 2017, two months prior to Jacky Cheung’s concert in Nanjing, they agreed that Liu was responsible for booking tickets of the concert. Meanwhile, Wu owed debts and intended to swindle others out of money to pay its debts, so he contacted the victim Li who wanted to purchase the tickets and agreed with Li that Li paid the money and Wu was to book the tickets.

Later, Wu falsely claimed that he needed money to pay for the tickets and asked Li to transfer RMB800,000 to Liu’s bank account. After Li paid the money, Wu arranged Liu to transfer the money to the bank account designated by him on the ground of capital turnover. Till the tickets of the concert were issued, Wu was unable to return the money to Liu to book the tickets and was unable to repay Li. At the end of that month, Wu negotiated with the victim Chen over the booking of tickets of Jacky Cheung’s concert in Nanjing. Liu, Wu and Chen met and Liu undertook that he could book tickets for Chen and required Chen to transfer RMB270, 000 to him to pay for the tickets.

After receiving money, Liu claimed to pick up the tickets and left Wu and Chen and then cut off contact with them. The money was used by Liu to pay for his living expenses rather than book tickets. The Defendants Liu and Wu were captured by the public security organs respectively on December 24 and 28, 2017.

[Law Interpretation with Case]

After the trial, Shanghai Xuhui Court held that, the Defendants Wu and Chen aimed at illegally possessing the victims’ property and swindled victims out of money. Wu swindled the victim out of RMB800,000 and Liu swindled the victim of RMB270,000. As the amounts were especially huge, the behaviors of the Defendants shall constitute crimes of fraud.

As the two Defendants truthfully confessed their crimes before the court and gained the forgiveness of the victims, and as Wu returned part of his illegal gains and Liu returned all of his illegal gains, they shall be given a lighter punishment. On the other hand, the Defendant Liu had criminal records, and he shall be given a severer punishment. After considering all the factors, the court entered the above judgment.

[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 67…

  Any criminal suspect who truthfully confesses his crimes even though his act falls out of the voluntary surrender circumstances specified in the foregoing two clauses may be given a lighter punishment; in case extremely serious consequences are avoided due to his truthful confession of crimes, he may be given a mitigated punishment.

  Article 55     A term of deprivation of political rights shall be not less than one year but not more than five years, except as stipulated in Article 57 of this Law.

  ……

  Article 56     Anyone who commits the crime of endangering national security shall be sentenced to deprivation of political rights as a supplementary punishment; anyone who commits the crime of seriously undermining public order by intentional homicide, rape, arson, explosion, poisoning or robbery may be sentenced to deprivation of political rights as a supplementary punishment.

  ……

  Article 52     The amount of any fine imposed shall be determined according to the circumstances of the crime.

  Article 53     A fine may be paid in a lump sum or in installments within the time limit specified in the judgment. If a fine is not paid upon the expiration of that time limit, the payment shall be compelled. If a person is not able to pay the fine in full, the People's Court shall demand the payment whenever it finds the person has property for execution of the fine.

  If a person has true difficulties in paying because of an irresistible disaster, the fine may be deferred, reduced or remitted according to the circumstances, as judged by the People’s Court.

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.

(Written by: Zhang Shuoyang, Shanghai Xuhui Court)

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The English version of this article, which is translated from the Chinese version by CTPC, is for reference only and shall be subject to the corresponding contents on the Chinese webpage.
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