Seized more than 58,000 square meters of land, 329 sets of real estate, the amount of crime exceeded 1.3 billion; hundreds of owners could not live in new houses, the assets of many large enterprises were annexed, and finally bankruptcy ended...
Zhang Yuanfeng, who started as an ordinary merchant, has built a huge criminal network in more than a decade, which has deeply affected Huizhou and Heyuan.
On December 24, the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court pronounced a second-instance judgment on the case, and the court rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment: Zhang Yuanfeng was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all personal property for six crimes, including fraud and extortion, and other gangs were also sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment.
More than 600 volumes of files are full of ironclad evidence, accusing Zhang Yuanfeng's gang of criminal facts, a criminal group that has been in the for many years, and in the face of a heavy blow to sweep away criminal syndicates and eliminate evil forces, it has suddenly collapsed.
Take control of family assets
Register more than a dozen companies in disguise
Zhang Was born in 1971 in a small town in Heyuan. As the eldest son in the family, Zhang Yuanfeng did not graduate from high school and began to learn to do business with his father.
In the 1990s, Zhang Yuanfeng followed his father to Huizhou to develop, opening snake restaurants, operating carpentry factories, and speculating on land in Huicheng District, accumulating original capital.
At the age of 36, Zhang Yuanfeng's father died, and after that, he used his status as the eldest son, husband and father to gradually take charge of the family and family assets.
In the eyes of relatives and friends, Zhang Yuanfeng is very domineering. Sister-in-law Zhang Ge said that after the death of her father-in-law, she left behind a house, a piece of land and tens of millions of yuan in deposits, all of which were managed by Zhang Yuanfeng and his wife, and were not distributed to other family members.
"Everyone was afraid of him like a plague god, and they didn't dare to come near him." Zhang Ge said that whether in life or business, family members should follow Zhang Yuanfeng's instructions and arrangements, and if anyone raises objections, Zhang Yuanfeng will directly beat people.
Zhang Yuanfeng's wife and brother were often beaten for not getting things done well or for going against his opinion.
The accomplice Liu Kang had been doing business with Zhang Yuanfeng for many years, and he remembered such a thing: Zhang Yuanfeng's two younger brothers helped Zhang Yuanfeng do many things, but did not get too many benefits, one of the younger brothers did not want to do it, ran to the field, Zhang Yuanfeng did not allow it, and the younger brother had to obediently come back.
The high degree of control over family personnel and assets has facilitated Zhang Yuanfeng's business expansion.
A large number of real estate deeds were found from Zhang Yuanfeng. Courtesy of Huizhou police
In order to cover up attempts to defraud bank loans and defraud others of their property, Zhang Yuanfeng registered more than a dozen companies in the name of himself and other family members.
"Zhang Yuanfeng made his fortune by lending usury, and these companies did not actually operate." Zhang Ge said that these companies are only opened to facilitate bank loans and to settle accounts with others. When Zhang Yuanfeng annexed the properties and land of other companies, he hung the properties under the names of different companies.
Arrange for different family members to act as legal persons, shareholders, etc. in companies, and use these companies to open accounts, sign contracts, apply for loans, transfer money, file lawsuits, hire personnel...
In this way, Zhang Yuanfeng put on the company's legal cloak for his illegal and criminal activities.
Aim at real estate developers to set up sets
Embezzlement of each other's property
In 2004, Zhang Yuanfeng's gang began targeting real estate developers in Huizhou and Heyuan.
Taking advantage of the developer's urgent need for capital turnover, as well as the lack of understanding of the tricks and harms of the routine loan, Zhang Yuanfeng used the "industry rules" as an excuse to deceive the other party into signing an agreement that was inconsistent with the actual borrowing interest rate, and constantly laid huge traps for the routine loan.
The safe in Zhang Yuanfeng's home is dedicated to storing routine loan contracts. Courtesy of Huizhou police
When signing the loan contract, Zhang Yuanfeng often issued a written agreement, and there was also an oral agreement, and the oral agreement that was actually implemented, the interest was much higher than the written agreement, and when the money was lent, another beheading interest was charged.
For example, Zhang Yuanfeng borrowed 1 million yuan to others, first transferred 180,000 yuan to the other party, and then let the other party withdraw 180,000 yuan to return to Zhang Yuanfeng, and Zhang Yuanfeng transferred the remaining 820,000 yuan to the other party.
In this way, the other party actually only received 820,000 yuan, but generated a bank flow voucher of 1 million yuan of borrowing.
In order to ensure the success of the set, Zhang Yuanfeng specially invited a lawyer to advise him and appear in court to answer the lawsuit.
After continuous profit rolling, when the borrower really could not afford to repay the money, Zhang Yuanfeng sued the other party with the loan shown by the bank flow, seized the mortgage property of the other party, and then completed the encroachment through auction.
These encroached properties, Zhang Yuanfeng continued to use the bank to apply for mortgage loans, and then lend to others, so as to circulate.
In Liu Kang's view, the purpose of Zhang Yuanfeng's loan is not for interest at all, but to embezzle the other party's real estate. He said that these victims are all well-known local real estate developers, and after falling into Zhang Yuanfeng's trap of routine loans, one by one the capital chain was broken, and the property was gradually encroached upon.
In 2014, Yuandong Group borrowed 82 million yuan from Zhang Yuanfeng due to capital turnover problems, and the actual collection was 61 million yuan, which has since become a nightmare for Yuandong Group. Since then, due to the inability to pay off the principal in time, Zhang Yuanfeng has continued to inflate debts and let Yuandong Group sign a new loan agreement.
In the past few years, Yuandong Group has signed about 30 agreements, and the actual loan is 110 million yuan, but Zhang Yuanfeng inflated the debt to nearly 500 million, and the company's assets were embezzled in large quantities.
Corporate bankruptcy real estate is in ruins
More than 58,000 square meters of land were seized
Between 2004 and 2018, Zhang Yuanfeng's gang used such means to commit a total of 13 fraud crimes and 1 crime of extortion.
As of June 2018, the land under the name of Zhang Yuanfeng's gang has exceeded 58,000 square meters, the total area of real estate has exceeded 72,000 square meters, and the bank deposits alone have reached 168 million yuan.
Long-term criminal activities have had a bad impact on the local area. After heyuan Hengyi Plaza, Dalong Fortune Plaza and other properties were seized by Zhang Yuanfeng and others, the project could not be completed, and hundreds of owners could not receive the property as scheduled.
The third phase of the World Trade Center, Dalong Fortune Plaza and other real estate has been in ruins, and companies such as Guangyao Group and Zhongwang Group have gone bankrupt.
The victim, Yang Mou, is one of the developers, and this experience has made him afraid to this day.
"Because of Zhang Yuanfeng, our company's capital chain is broken, it cannot operate, everyone comes to the door at the same time, the real estate workers want wages, the industry leaders say, the builders and material dealers want me to pay..." Yang said, at that time, he was very afraid, had to send his family and children to live in other provinces.
In the real estate developed by Yang alone, 400 owners were victimized.
However, until he stood in the defendant's seat to stand trial, Zhang Yuanfeng still refused to admit guilt, trying to excuse himself under the pretext of private lending.
"The Guangdong Higher People's Court conducted a serious review of the case on the premise of adhering to procedural fairness and fully protecting the rights and interests of the defendants." Zhao Zhichun, the judge in charge of the case, told the Southern Daily reporter that whether the victims knew the contents of the loan agreement did not affect the determination of the purpose of "illegal possession" of Zhang Yuanfeng and others, and the evidence in the case was enough to show that the behavior of Zhang Yuanfeng and others fully complied with the provisions of "routine loans" in the "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Handling of Criminal Cases of "Routine Loans".
In the face of ironclad evidence, Zhang Yuanfeng and others who tried to exonerate themselves were finally punished according to law.
In view of the large number of victims in this case, the court has successively started the work of refunding compensation. The Nanfang Daily reporter learned that in principle, the specific property and vehicles obtained by Zhang Yuanfeng's gang from the victims should be returned according to the original property; those that have been transferred, if they are not acquired in good faith, should be recovered, and the defendants who cannot be recovered should be returned according to the corresponding value.
"It's a delight!" At the moment of hearing the verdict, Yang used four words to describe his mood.
dialogue
The cloak of legality does not change the nature of the crime
The huge amount of money and the large number of victims have aroused widespread concern after the incident. After the verdict was pronounced, a reporter from Nanfang Daily interviewed Zhao Zhichun, judge of the Fourth Criminal Division of the Guangdong Higher People's Court, and Shao Weiguo, vice president of the Guangdong Criminal Law Society and professor of the Law School of Guangzhou University, to further interpret the case.
Zhang Yuanfeng deceived the other party into signing a large number of written agreements that were inconsistent with the actual interest rate of the loan. Courtesy of Huizhou police
Reporter: There are many points of controversy in this case, such as whether it constitutes fraud and whether it constitutes a criminal syndicate or evil crime, and how did the court make a determination?
Zhao Zhichun: The fundamental difference between routine loans and private lending is that in private lending, the lender only wants the principal and interest payable by the borrower, and will not deceive to cover up the real loan amount.
In contrast, in this case, in addition to the principal and interest that the borrower should pay, the lender illegally took possession of the borrower's other property by cheating.
A large amount of evidence shows that Zhang Yuanfeng defrauded the property by "routine" methods such as double counting the principal, interest and concealing repayment.
China's criminal law does not make substantive provisions on the specific composition of fraud, with the complexity of the form of fraud and the diversification of criminal means, it is no longer possible to unilaterally and simply require that the victim and the deceived person must be the same person, and the surrender of property must be voluntary, otherwise the scope of application of the crime of fraud will be narrowed and is not conducive to cracking down on crime.
Zhang Yuanfeng and others mainly use civil litigation to achieve false claims, which is actually a kind of litigation fraud, which is essentially to illegally occupy other people's property.
In addition, Zhang Yuanfeng and others have organized and premeditated to commit illegal and criminal acts on many occasions, doing evil and oppressing the people, causing a bad social impact, and also conforming to the determination of the two supreme courts and the two ministries for the criminal group of evil forces.
Reporter: What do you think of the court's judgment on the modus operandi of the case?
Shao Weiguo: This jurisprudence is of great guiding significance. This is a new type of routine loan, the perpetrator does not use unsecured, preferential interest rates and other bait to widely attract unspecified people to lend, but to grasp the information of real estate enterprises or individuals that are in urgent need of funds and have no way to raise funds, and negotiate loans to them in a targeted manner.
The perpetrator presupposes routines such as "profit transfer", "profit rolling profit", "verbal agreement on high interest, low interest on paper", "no trace of beheading interest", etc., and thereafter, through the company he actually controls, he lends money to the bank on a large scale, and then lends it to others through the above-mentioned routine, and mainly uses legal cloaks such as litigation, arbitration, and notarization to achieve the purpose of encroaching on other people's property.
Perpetrators may even intimidate the other party by packaging themselves as big capitalists, or occasionally use threats to make the other party accept a substantially unfair loan contract.
The appearance of such a modus operandi is stronger, but the criminal nature of illegally occupying other people's property has not changed.
[Reporter] Shang Liyang
[Correspondent] Zhou Qi