Case Overview

This case is a civil dispute arising from the failure to honor a promissory note upon its expiration, which escalated into a criminal case. Because it involves nine banks, 1.1 billion yuan of funds, and after the Supreme People's Court and other courts judgment, and then formed a criminal case, in the financial and legal circles caused great impact, “Sina Finance”, “21st Century Business Herald” and many other media serial reports. Defendant Yao, formerly deputy general manager of the planning and finance department of a commercial bank's Sanya branch and account manager of note business, was accused of committing note fraud together with others and accepting a bribe of 14.9 million yuan using the convenience of his position. The Ordos Intermediate People's Court sentenced him in the first instance to life imprisonment for the crime of bill fraud and eight years for the crime of accepting bribes by a non-state official, which were combined to carry out a life sentence.

King&Capital Law Firm accepted the commission since 2017, assigned Gong Piguo, Niu Xingli, Wang Qingnan and other lawyers to form a defense team, through the investigation, examination and prosecution, first trial, second trial, remanded for retrial first trial, second trial, and other all litigation procedures, and continued to defend for eight years. Finally, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region high people's court made a final judgment: Yao was sentenced to eleven years of imprisonment for the crime of bill fraud, seven years of imprisonment for the crime of accepting bribes from non-state officials, revoked the additional penalty sentence for the crime of bill fraud, combined with fourteen years of imprisonment and a fine of three hundred thousand yuan. The defendant's sentence was substantially reduced, and the defense work was effective.

Defense Difficulties and Challenges

1

The case was extremely complex, civil and criminal intertwined:

The case originated from an inter-bank bill rediscounting dispute involving nine banks, and more than a dozen civil judgments had been issued by the Supreme People's Court and other courts, which were later upgraded to a criminal case, involving a large amount of financial expertise, bill circulation rules, inter-bank business practices, and multiple civil legal relationships, which made it extremely difficult to sort out the facts and characterize the law.

2

The charges were serious and the sentence was abnormally heavy:

The first-instance verdict that Yao constituted the crime of bill fraud and was sentenced to life imprisonment reflected the initial unfamiliarity of criminal justice personnel with this kind of financial frontier business disputes and their harsh attitude towards the determination of bank practitioners' responsibility in similar business, and the pressure of defense was enormous.

3

The evidence material was complicated and the case file was voluminous:

The case involved dozens of defendants, numerous financial institutions, massive documentary evidence, electronic data and witness testimony, and an intricate and complex evidence system, which required a huge amount of time and effort to clarify the facts and refine the focus.

4

The proceedings were lengthy and took eight years:

The case went through multiple trials and repeated procedures, which put forward extremely high requirements for the lawyers' professional endurance, client communication and ability to adjust strategies. The defense team needed to follow up continuously at different stages of the proceedings to cope with the ever-changing trial focus and judicial views.

5

Ambiguous definition of unit crime and individual responsibility:

The prosecution had accused a commercial bank, Sanya Branch, of constituting a unit crime. How to clearly peel off the unit behavior and individual behavior, and argue the nature of Yao's functional behavior and his subjective intent, became the core controversial point of the defense.

Defense strategy and core work

In the face of difficulties, King&Capital Law Firm defense team developed a thorough and detailed defense plan, and always adhere to the professional and responsible spirit of practice:

1. In-depth analysis of the nature of the note business: the team studied the bank's rediscounting business procedures, and clearly pointed out that rediscounting is a conventional low-risk business between banks based on credit, Yao, as a business manager, is only responsible for the process of docking, and has no legal obligation to review the qualifications of the drawer, his behavior does not meet the core elements of the crime of note fraud “for the purpose of illegal possession”. The core elements, put forward “a commercial bank does not constitute a unit crime, yao mou does not constitute this crime; even if a commercial bank constitutes a unit crime, yao mou also does not constitute this crime” comprehensive defense.

2. clarify the unit and individual responsibility boundary: strong argument that a commercial bank in this case does not constitute a unit crime. Yao's behavior without the unit's collective decision-making, and the huge benefits gained by the unit is not returned to the unit, can not represent the will of the unit, ultimately, the court adopted the defense opinion, the bank does not constitute a unit crime, fundamentally shook the basis of the harsh charges against Yao, although the court ultimately ruled that Yao constitutes the crime of bill fraud, but his sentence was changed from life imprisonment to eleven years of imprisonment.

3. Precise attack on evidence and logical loopholes: against the charge of bribery of non-state staff, the defense proposed that a considerable portion of the money involved in the case was used for the team's official expenditures, not all of which was used for personal spending; at the same time, it was pointed out that there was a logical contradiction in the prosecution's allegation of fraud and bribery for the same amount of money at the same time. The defense also proposed that, even if it constitutes two crimes, its behavior is also imaginary competition, should be judged from a heavy.

4. Full tracking, multi-dimensional communication: In the eight-year-long procedure, the defense team not only focused on the courtroom, but also actively communicated with the parties and their families to stabilize their emotions; and within the scope of the law, assisted the parties and their families to return the stolen goods and other work, in order to strive for leniency in sentencing.

5. Efforts to mediate and influence the judgment: in view of the loss of more than 1 billion yuan of Ordos Agricultural and Commercial Bank is the basic reason for the formation of this case, the defender in accordance with the law and due diligence defense at the same time, efforts to coordinate the bank involved in the case, the Ordos Agricultural and Commercial Bank, and coordinating the Chongqing Fucheng Asset Company, the Beijing Cultural Investment Joint Stock Company, the Beijing Shoukai Group and other enterprises to intervene in the negotiation, intended to be a third-party acquisition of Ordos claims for debt reorganization way to resolve local financial risks and promote the judgment of criminal cases according to law. Although the mediation program was not successful due to the large gap between the parties' intentions, the advocate's idea of “solving economic problems and promoting fair judgments” for civil-criminal intersection cases was recognized by the relevant leaders and parties.

Achievements and Values

After eight years of unremitting efforts, King&Capital Law Firm's defense work has achieved remarkable results, and the defense of the case and the verdict, but also has a greater judicial impact.

1. The defense effect is obvious: the defendant yao mou's sentence from the first trial of life imprisonment, and finally changed to 14 years of life imprisonment, realize the range of penalties for the huge leap, the maximum degree of protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the parties; in the retrial of the second trial, for the violation of the principle of “appeal not to increase the penalty” increase in the penalty sentence, the defense was adopted, the court corrected, revoked the penalty sentence, the court was adopted, the court was corrected. The court corrected and revoked the fine penalty, maintaining procedural justice; the defense team successfully persuaded the court to find that the Sanya branch of a commercial bank did not constitute a unit crime of bill fraud, and changed the sentence to a unit not constituting a crime, which provided valuable jurisprudential references to differentiate between unit responsibility and individual responsibility in such cases.

2. Great judicial value: this case is a typical civil dispute criminalization case. A series of civil disputes caused by the acceptance of bills of exchange due to repayment, has been the people's court judgment and into the implementation of the program, but the bank leadership to shirk the personal responsibility of the loss, reported to the public security organs. For disputes arising from new types of financial business, such as bill discounting, the public prosecutors and law enforcement authorities lacked the relevant experience in handling the case, and under the intervention of local political and legal authorities, the criminalization of civil disputes became a persistent social problem. 

3. Professional value highlights: King&Capital Law Firm's team of lawyers has won the respect of the clients and the industry for its deep understanding of the financial business of bills, its skillful use of criminal defense techniques, and its highly responsible attitude towards the clients. The successful defense of this case demonstrated the King&Capital Law Firm lawyers in the complex financial crimes, civil and criminal cross-cutting areas of deep professional expertise, tenacious fighting spirit and long-term perseverance. At the same time, King&Capital Law Firm not only defended Yao in this case, but also indirectly contributed to the reflection on similar “civil-criminal intersection” financial disputes in judicial practice through professional opinions and the impact of the case, emphasizing the importance of avoiding undue interference in economic disputes by criminal means.

The defense of this case is a combination of perseverance, professionalism and wisdom. King&Capital Law Firm lawyers with eight years of perseverance, in the seemingly unfavorable situation to find a breakthrough, and gradually reverse the situation, and ultimately for the parties to fight for a relatively fair outcome, and effectively fulfill the duties of the defense lawyers, guard the correct implementation of the law and the legitimate rights and interests of the parties.