Recently, a securities market manipulation case represented by attorneys Zhang Qiming and Xu Ming ushered in the verdict. The client was suspected of manipulating a certain stock by taking advantage of its capital and shareholding, and the statutory base sentence was originally more than five years. After a multi-dimensional defense by the lawyers, the sentence was significantly reduced and the client was finally sentenced to one and a half years' imprisonment.
Manipulation of the securities market is one of the most complex types of securities and futures crimes, covering two types of behavioral patterns: transaction-based manipulation and information-based manipulation. This case is a typical transaction-based manipulation. The company involved in the case is mainly engaged in asset management, private equity funds and other businesses, through the signing of the stock holding management agreement to raise a large number of securities accounts and funds, and hired another team to take the opposite transaction, the end of the market to lift the manipulation of a stock, a large number of centralized trading, the turnover amount of up to more than 600 million yuan, the cumulative turnover of the ten consecutive trading days reached the total turnover of the securities more than fifty percent.
After the intervention of the lawyer team, the evidence of the whole case was fully examined, and the defense was cut from the following angles. First, the defense of the crime. At the early stage of the case, the contractor has proposed that the case is recognized as illegal public deposit may be, once according to this characterization, the party may face a higher sentence. The defender started from the core element of “inducement”, pointing out that the behavior of the parties involved did not involve the promise of guaranteeing the payment of capital and interest, and the source of the investors' income was the premium income brought by the rise in share price, not the interest on the occupation of funds, which did not conform to the constitutive elements of the crime of illegal absorption of public deposits; if convicted of the crime, it would be difficult to evaluate the facts of the whole case in a complete manner. The contractor finally recognized the defense point of view, choose to manipulate the securities market on the party convicted.
Second, the criminal role of the defense. After a comprehensive reading, the lawyer team that the manipulation of the securities market can be divided into front-end and back-end model, the front-end is responsible for raising funds and accounts, the back-end is responsible for the implementation of technical instructions for manipulation, the front and back-end of the “back to back”, independent of each other, do not know each other. The party in this case is in the center of the link between the front end and the back end, and the authorities believe that he occupies a more important position in the criminal process, and at one time there was the possibility of recognizing him as the main offender and sentencing him to more than five years' imprisonment. In response to this view, the defense drew an organizational chart of the case, pointing out that he was only a staff member at the executive level, and although he was the hub of the link between the front and back ends, he was essentially unaware of the overall business model. Organizational chart as the basis for the file evidence as an aid, the defense fully communicated with the authorities, and ultimately the point of view was adopted by the authorities.
Third, the defense of the subject of the crime. Manipulation of securities market crimes can be constituted by the unit. After the establishment of the company to normal asset management business as the scope of business, the implementation of the relevant projects by the company's executives to make decisions, the proceeds belong to the company. The legal team believes that there is room for the case to be recognized as a unit crime. Although there is no substantial difference in the penalty for this crime between a unit and a natural person, but by recognizing the unit crime, we can strive for the unit to bear the fine, which can effectively reduce the financial burden of the family of the person concerned.
At the stage of examination and prosecution, the lawyer team actively negotiated with the prosecuting authority, and carried out 6 rounds of intensive communication with the prosecuting authority within 7 days. After fully listening to the lawyer's opinion, the procuratorate first gave the sentencing range of one and a half to two and a half years, and the lawyer team pointed out that the range of less than three years should be controlled in half a year, and succeeded in compressing the sentencing expectation within the range of one and a half to two years. After the case was transferred to the court, the lawyer team continued to communicate with the judge, from the party's family situation, the role played in the crime, and the attitude of repentance for the crime, in the court process, the party should be applied to more than five years of the base sentence questioned. After a sustained campaign, the team eventually facilitated the court to impose the lowest sentence in the range, i.e. one year and six months' imprisonment.
Shortly after the case was sentenced, the client will regain his freedom the day before his daughter's birthday. This judgment is not only the end of the case, but also the dawn of his return to his family and the restart of his life.
