On June 17, 2020, Wang Zhenhua, a well-known entrepreneur and founder of Xincheng Development Holdings Co., Ltd., was sentenced to five years in prison for child molestation in the first instance, which attracted widespread attention.
When the news reached Wang Zhenhua's hometown of Changzhou, it caused an uproar.
For changzhou locals, Wang Zhenhua's sentence was unexpected.
In fact, for a long time before, Wang Zhenhua was a "positive image" in the eyes of Changzhou locals.
Wang Zhenhua started his career in the textile business in his early years and later switched to the real estate industry.
From the small workshop of 6 looms to the "business empire" of 330 billion, Wang Zhenhua only took twenty years.
After the success of his career, Wang Zhenhua never forgot his fellow villagers in Changzhou.
He began to make large investments in the local area, introduce jobs to locals, buy a house with a 10% discount...
All kinds of good things can be said to be uncountable.
These acts of kindness have greatly improved the lives of the people of Changzhou, and for a while, for this entrepreneur, almost everyone in Changzhou gave a thumbs up.
However, on this day in 2020, the positive image of Wang Zhenhua, who has been painstakingly operating for decades, completely collapsed with the court's judgment.
The locals recognized this reality with a "complicated" mood: Wang Zhenhua did indeed go in.
Wang Zhenhua's "Two-Sided Life"
After the incident, Wang Zhenhua's thirty-year-old friend and former colleague Zhao Gang was interviewed by reporters.
According to his introduction, Wang Zhenhua in his early years had no background, and his history of his family was completely inspiring.
Wang Zhenhua's mother was an ordinary employee of Wujin First Cotton Spinning Factory, and his father was a vendor selling fishing lines and hooks at a stall.
When Wang Zhenhua was 18 years old, he originally could not enter the factory, or replaced his mother's class, and only then did he enter the cotton spinning factory.
"He was willing to study, and soon became a skilled worker, and in the first year of his work, he took the factory advanced."
Wang Zhenhua's work ability is very strong, from ordinary workers to the director of the machine workshop, Wang Zhenhua only took 3 years to become a unique general in the factory.
At that time, his salary was as high as 500 yuan, which was a dream that many people dreamed of in the 1990s.
Wang Zhenhua was not satisfied, and within a few years, he resolutely chose to resign and do business.
He bought 6 textile machines to process raw materials for garment factories.
In just three years, it has accumulated a wealth of 2 million yuan.
After that, Wang Zhenhua caught up with the wave of the real estate industry.
With this shareholder wind, he jumped up and became the famous "richest man".
After Wang Zhenhua became famous, there were countless companies under his name, but almost every company would have employees from Wujin District, Changzhou.
As long as it is a local in Wujin District, say hello, Wang Zhenhua will not hesitate to introduce the work, and the work is easy with generous treatment.
Even the locals have such a rumor, if anyone is on wang Zhenhua, who will not have to worry about the second half of his life.
This is not false, for the employees under his name, Wang Zhenhua can be said to be very interesting.
Since his fortune, Wang Zhenhua has built at least fifty real estate projects in Changzhou.
As long as there are employees of the company who buy a house, he will all get a 10% discount, or even a greater discount.
There are also rumors that these properties do not make money at all, just to give back to employees.
Someone once said: Changzhou has a population of more than four million, and those who have eaten Wang Zhenhua's "big pot rice" have not had 100,000 but also 80,000.
To some extent, Wang Zhenhua is to Changzhou, just like Liu Qiangdong is to Suqian, and both are models of "benefiting neighbors".
Although Wang Zhenhua is successful in his career, in his personal life, there are various ambiguous legends.
Since around 2000, rumors about Wang Zhenhua have been known to locals in Changzhou.
Most locals have heard peach-colored news about the "richest man": there is a hotel bathhouse in Wujin District of Changzhou City, where Wang Zhenhua often goes to take a bath.
It was here that he met a young local woman, Zhou Yanfen, "and when they came and went, the two of them hooked up." ”
Wang Zhenhua has a family, and the other party is a divorced woman.
After the two sides established an ambiguous relationship, Wang Zhenhua would often give her money.
This incident, including Wang Zhenhua's wife, can be said to be almost well known.
For these rumors of Wang Zhenhua, most of the locals laughed.
On the one hand, rumors are just rumors after all, and no one can say that this must be true.
On the other hand, if a person is not a sage, who can be blameless?
Even if there really is, it is also a problem for Wang Zhenhua and his wife, and outsiders will at most look at the hilarity.
At this time, no one could have imagined that in just a few years, Wang Zhenhua, a once beautiful entrepreneur, would be imprisoned for "child molestation".
And his lover Zhou Yanfen, who had an extramarital affair twenty years ago, was eventually imprisoned for "pimping" Wang Zhenhua.
Wang Zhenhua's "molestation of young girls" case began and ended
On July 1, 2019, Shanghai police received a report from a mother.
The other party claimed that his nine-year-old daughter was molested by a middle-aged man in a five-star hotel in Shanghai.
Through further investigation by the police, it was confirmed that the man was Wang Zhenhua, the former chairman of The New Town Holding Group.
Why would a nine-year-old girl inexplicably appear in a five-star hotel with Wang Zhenhua?
The introducer in the middle is Zhou Yanfen, who has had many years of scandals and rumors with Wang Zhenhua.
Zhou Yanfen was originally from Changzhou and later settled in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province.
By chance, she met the girl's mother.
Later, under the pretext of bringing girls to Shanghai, she brought two children (the victim was nine years old and a twelve-year-old girl) to Shanghai.
On the surface, Zhou Yanfen is a warm-hearted aunt.
But her actual purpose was to find prey for Wang Zhenhua, who is now fifty-eight years old.
On the day she arrived in Shanghai, the nine-year-old girl was sent to Wang Zhenhua's five-star hotel.
According to the police's subsequent investigation, during this period, Zhou Yanfen's account received a remittance of 10,000 yuan from Wang Zhenhua at the same time.
Afterwards, Wang Zhenhua molested the nine-year-old girl in the room.
After the girl was violated, she was emotionally unstable.
When she returned home, she quickly cried and reported the incident to her mother, who called the police.
After the doctor's appraisal, the infringed girl's lower body has been torn, and there is also damage to the hymen, which meets the criteria of "second-degree minor injury", which is enough to determine that Wang Zhenhua has the criminal facts of indecency.
After the mother reported the case on July 1, Wang Zhenhua, chairman of Xincheng Holdings, was controlled by the Shanghai police for molesting a girl.
After the facts of the crime were basically confirmed, on July 12, the Shanghai Putuo District Procuratorate approved the arrest of Wang Zhenhua and Zhou Yanfen on suspicion of child molestation.
After the incident, Wang Zhenhua took the initiative to contact the victim's family.
She hoped to transfer 100,000 yuan to the other party at one time to obtain the other party's understanding, but this move ultimately failed.
Two developments from this case:
First, Zhou Yanfen took two girls to Shanghai and told the girl's mother that she was going to Disney.
2. Wang Zhenhua molested a 9-year-old girl and paid Zhou 10,000 yuan in cash;
We can see that there is absolutely no "unintentional action" between Wang Zhenhua and Zhou Yanfen, and this incident is an extremely bad premeditated indecent case.
Even if the victim's family did forgive Wang Zhenhua, the police would not be able to allow him to go unpunished.
Because of the gravity of the situation, the social impact is extremely bad.
After the incident, even Wang Zhenhua's New Town Holdings had to issue an open letter to cut wang Zhenhua.
The letter said: "New Town Holdings" deeply apologized and uneasy about the victims, and any violation of minors must be severely punished by law.
Although the relevant evidence is conclusive, Wang Zhenhua's child molestation case is a solid fact.
However, as a person who is accustomed to seeing strong winds and waves, Wang Zhenhua still did not stop at this time.
From the investigation stage, the procuratorial stage, and the court stage, Wang Zhenhua showed extremely sophisticated means.
His confessions remained consistent, insisting on denying his indecent assault on young girls, and then hired a well-known lawyer, Chen Youxi, to defend himself.
On June 18, 2020, after being sentenced to five years in prison in the first instance, Wang Zhenhua was still not dead.00.
He made it clear through his lawyer that he had filed an appeal requesting a second-instance trial to acquit him.
Wang Zhenhua and his defense lawyers' rationale is bordering on rogues.
Wang Zhenhua said that the time he entered and exited the room of the five-star hotel was only 13 minutes, and the effective crime time was less than 5 minutes.
Such a short period of time is not enough to commit a crime.
Almost anyone with a modicum of common sense can see the problem, and the 13-minute in and out time is understandable, but why would it be a "five-minute effective crime time" for no reason?
Moreover, there is no law in the world that determines the time of the crime.
The result of the crime caused by Wang Zhenhua is beyond doubt, and this statement is nothing more than a stealing concept.
In court, the language of his lawyer defending him was even more infuriating.
According to Chen Youxi's original words: Wang Zhenhua has always had his own bottom line, and even if he is a prostitute, he has never looked for a girl under the age of 16.
Chen Youxi's original intention was probably to try to show that Wang Zhenhua himself did not have a "pedophilic" hobby.
But both the way it is expressed and the logic of its expression are disgusting.
Until this time, Wang Zhenhua and his lawyer Chen Youxi were still trying to pass the pass with the idea of "never suspecting guilt."
For such an almost unreasonable defendant, it is impossible for the court and the inspection unit to pass.
Finally, on May 19, 2021, the Shanghai Second Intermediate People's Court ruled to reject his appeal and uphold the original judgment during the second-instance trial process.
Wang Zhenhua was sentenced to five years in prison and Zhou Yanfen to four years in prison.
Behind the controversy, is five years too little?
Judging from the mainland's laws and regulations: If you commit the crime of child molestation, you shall be sentenced to "fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention" in accordance with law;
Whoever molests a child in public or in a public place shall be given a heavier punishment in accordance with "fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years".
In Wang Zhenhua's case, Wang Zhenhua's behavior has caused a huge social bad impact.
However, it does not meet the criteria of "such as gathering a crowd or publicly molesting children in a public place", and the specific punishment should be attributed to the first "sentence of imprisonment of less than five years or criminal detention".
The court sentenced Wang Zhenhua to five years, which means that the top punishment was adopted.
The result of his sentence complies with the provisions of the law and is reasonable and lawful.
Although from a legal point of view, the outcome of this trial is not too much of a problem, but the public attention caused by this case can not be ignored.
Yu Minhong, the founder of New Oriental, was indignant in his evaluation of the matter, saying: "This judgment is now considered to have broken people's cognitive bottom line and set off a monstrous wave across the country. Did Wang Zhenhua commit child molestation? Now Wang Zhenhua actually did not admit that he had committed the crime, and also pretended that he was just hugging and hugging, if it was simply a cuddling and hugging, how could it cause a second-degree minor injury? ”
Yu Minhong believes that the punishment for Wang Zhenhua is too light.
He believes that crimes such as abduction and trafficking in women and children, child molestation and sexual abuse of children should be severely punished to deter potential perpetrators.
In addition, what is even more unsatisfactory is that as a billionaire who is worth hundreds of billions and is famous on the "Forbes" list, Wang Zhenhua was sentenced, because there was no civil lawsuit in the case, after the incident, he did not provide any compensation to the victim's family from beginning to end.
After Wang Zhenhua was imprisoned, his name, New Town Holdings, quickly replaced his only son Wang Xiaosong, cutting off all relations with Wang Zhenhua and continuing to make money to continue to do business.
Despite the timely cutting, Wang Zhenhua's imprisonment still had a huge impact on the company:
In the three trading days after the incident, the market value of his company evaporated by as much as 40 billion yuan...
Although Wang Zhenhua was punished by the law, the harm he caused did not be erased.
As the richest man in Changzhou, Wang Zhenhua originally had a brilliant life, but he did not cherish this hard-won life, but instead regarded his wealth as his confidence to challenge the law.
Wang Zhenhua above the courtroom shouted his grievances, not knowing that the real result that caused today was precisely because of his own disloyalty, disloyalty to his family, and disloyalty to society.
Resources:
- Wang Zhenhua, the former chairman of Metro Holdings, was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 9-year-old girl. Pengxun Technology
2. Wang Zhenhua and Zhou Moumou were arrested on suspicion of child molestation. China Economic Network