Source: Environmental Protection Circle
Author: Fu Bowang clan
Do you still remember that in October last year, a media reporter went undercover for an environmental monitoring agency and disclosed that a third-party agency was suspected of falsifying monitoring data? Follow-up penalties are coming.
On October 8, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced that Shanxi Chuangchuang Environmental Testing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fangchuang Company") and Xi'an Kona Testing and Calibration Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kona Company") have recently been sentenced in accordance with the law, and the two companies were sentenced to a fine of 200,000 yuan, confiscated illegal gains, and a total of nine people were sentenced.
▼Image source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment
The reason for such severe punishment is that the two companies have deceived in the course of carrying out environmental monitoring business, which has caused a bad social impact. According to the data, from March 2021 to the occurrence of the case, Fangchuang Company issued a total of 172 false monitoring reports, with illegal gains of 1.106 million yuan, and Kona Company issued a total of 222 false monitoring reports, with illegal gains of 762,000 yuan.
In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to work with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other departments to continue to maintain a high-pressure situation of cracking down on fraud and illegal acts by third-party institutions, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the third-party environmental protection service market.
1
Nine people were sentenced
The third-party organization has its qualifications revoked
The case of Kona providing false documents was pronounced on September 19 at the Xi'an Railway Transport Court.
According to the verdict, the defendant Kona Company was fined 200,000 yuan and confiscated illegal gains.
The defendant Shi XX and six others, involving the actual controller of the company, the assistant to the general manager, the authorized signatory, the person in charge of the laboratory, the report reviewer, the sampler, etc., were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year and two months to nine months, and fines ranging from 50,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
At the same time, the court also prohibited the six defendants from engaging in environmental monitoring and related professions for three years from the date of completion of their sentences.
▼ The scene of the trial. Image source: Xi'an Railway Transport Court
After trial, the court found that since March 2021, the defendant Kona Company has committed fraud and issued false monitoring reports in the process of carrying out environmental monitoring business, involving a number of entrusting units in many cities in the province, covering multiple professional fields, multiple management departments, and multiple monitoring projects.
From March 2021 to the occurrence of the case, Kona issued a total of 222 false monitoring reports, with illegal gains of 762,000 yuan.
For these, the six defendants all surrendered and pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, and the defendant unit also returned 250,000 yuan of illegal gains.
The Xi'an Railway Transport Court held that the defendant Xi'an Kona Testing and Calibration Co., Ltd., as an intermediary organization undertaking environmental monitoring duties, and the six defendants, as the directly responsible supervisors and other directly responsible personnel of the defendant unit, knew that the issuance of false monitoring reports would seriously disrupt the order of environmental monitoring market management, but still instructed, instructed, and acquiesced in the monitoring personnel to deliberately issue false monitoring reports, with illegal gains amounting to more than 70 yuan, and the number of false monitoring reports issued was as high as 222, involving many fields, regions, and industries. The circumstances are serious, and their acts constitute the crime of providing false supporting documents.
In view of the fact that the six defendants all surrendered voluntarily, pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, and that the defendant unit voluntarily returned part of the illegal gains, they were given lenient dispositions in accordance with law. In order to prevent the six defendants from using their profession to facilitate crimes again, each defendant is prohibited from engaging in environmental monitoring operations for a certain period of time in accordance with law. The judgment was accordingly rendered.
It is reported that this case is the first case in Shaanxi Province in the field of environmental resources monitoring in which criminal responsibility was investigated for providing false supporting documents.
Coincidentally, in the problems exposed by media reporters last year, Fangchuang Company was also sentenced to a fine of 200,000 yuan, confiscated illegal gains, and sentenced the company's legal representative, technical director, and laboratory leader to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year and six months to one year, and a fine.
The qualifications of the two third-party organizations were revoked, and a total of nine defendants were banned from engaging in environmental monitoring and related professions for three years, and were sentenced.
▼Notice on the revocation of the qualification certificate of Shanxi Chuangchuang Environmental Testing Co., Ltd. inspection and testing institution. Image source: Shanxi Provincial Administration for Market Regulation
According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the verdicts in these two cases fully reflect the firm stance of the departments of ecology and environment, market regulation and criminal justice to curb the spread of falsification of monitoring data, and the firm determination to severely punish and severely punish lawbreakers and criminals.
In the two cases, criminal penalties were imposed not only on the actual controllers and legal representatives of the third-party institutions, but also on the specific responsible persons for committing fraud in all aspects of sampling, analysis, report approval, and signing.
This shows that illegal and criminal acts of fraud will be severely punished by the law, and third-party institutions and practitioners should take this as a lesson to enhance their legal awareness, strictly abide by professional ethics, and operate in accordance with the law and in good faith.
2
Media exposure
The three departments jointly supervised the listing
The issue of the two third-party organizations suspected of falsifying environmental monitoring data was first exposed by the media.
On October 16, 2023, the "Beijing News" published an article ""Only two exhaust vents are measured, and the rest are all fake", the reporter undercover environmental monitoring agency-", which was the first to reveal this problem.
▼Image source: Beijing News
It turned out that Beijing News reporters went undercover to two third-party environmental monitoring agencies in Xi'an and Taiyuan, and found that they often cheated and helped polluting companies "get through" by falsifying and tampering with monitoring data and issuing false monitoring reports.
Kona, for example, used tap water instead of medical wastewater as a sample.
In the sampling process, Fangchuang Company colluded with the monitored enterprises to ensure that the relevant indicators were "temporarily qualified" during monitoring by temporarily adding chemicals.
After the problem was exposed, on December 22, 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security decided to supervise the two cases, and sent special teams to the scene to supervise and supervise them several times.
▼Image source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment clearly requires that the ecological and environmental departments of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces should actively cooperate with the procuratorial organs and public security organs to carry out investigation and evidence collection, nature determination and consequence assessment, and provide necessary on-site investigation, environmental monitoring and ecological environment identification opinions, etc., to provide professional technical support for the investigation and handling of cases.
Subsequently, Shanxi and Shaanxi set up a special case team composed of departments such as ecology and environment, market supervision, public security, procuratorate, and courts, to comprehensively investigate the illegal acts of the two institutions in the "whole chain" of business solicitation, on-site sampling, experimental analysis, report issuance, and financial revenue and expenditure by obtaining automatic monitoring and video surveillance records, investigating and questioning relevant pollutant discharge enterprises and key individuals, and conducting judicial audits on the amount involved in false reportsand efficiently complete the investigation and handling of cases in accordance with the law.
3
Draw inferences
Carry out a special operation to crack down on fraud by environmental monitoring agencies
At the same time as completing the investigation and handling of the case, local ecological and environmental departments are also "drawing inferences from one case" and carrying out a special action to crack down on fraud by environmental monitoring agencies.
On January 5 this year, the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment held a law-abiding training and warning education conference for third-party ecological and environmental monitoring institutions in the province to effectively strengthen the supervision and management of third-party ecological environmental monitoring institutions in the province.
▼Image source: Shaanxi Ecological Environment
The meeting invited the staff of the Shaanxi Provincial Law Enforcement Corps, as well as experts and professors from the Provincial Monitoring Station and the Northwest University of Political Science and Law, to carry out warning education in combination with typical cases of fraud by monitoring institutions, clarify the relevant requirements for quality control of monitoring institutions, and interpret the amendments to the Criminal Law and the judicial interpretations of the Supreme People's Court.
Zhou Jianxin, a member of the party group and deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, pointed out that in October last year, a reporter from the Beijing News exposed the fraud problem of Xi'an Kona Testing Company, and Shaanxi Province also found third-party monitoring fraud many times in environmental law enforcement inspections, reflecting that there are still loopholes in the management of third-party institutions, and it is necessary to draw inferences from one case and rectify the system.
Third-party institutions should also be clearly aware of the attitude and determination of Shaanxi Province to crack down on environmental data fraud, the current severe environmental protection situation in Shaanxi Province, and the clear realization that "fraud is a temporary benefit, harming others and regretting oneself for life", and must strictly implement relevant technical specifications, strictly abide by the bottom line of quality control, and earnestly fulfill social responsibilities.
It is understood that more than 260 people from 135 third-party ecological environment monitoring institutions in Shaanxi Province participated in the warning education conference, as well as the Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, the Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, and the Provincial Environmental Monitoring Center Station.
In addition to holding a warning education conference, some localities in Shaanxi Province have also carried out special actions to deceive environmental monitoring agencies.
According to the instructions of the higher authorities, the Yulin Municipal Market Supervision Administration and the Ecological Environment Bureau carried out a special action to defraud the socialized ecological environment inspection and testing (monitoring) institutions.
From March 13th to 14th, the Dingbian Branch of the Yulin Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau also cooperated with the joint inspection team of the Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau, and the Municipal Monitoring Station to carry out spot checks and inspections in Dingbian County.
▼Image source: Yulin Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment
It is understood that this joint law enforcement inspection mainly inspects the use of reference materials, inspection and testing (monitoring) reports and original records, etc., focusing on investigating and dealing with violations of national laws and regulations and environmental monitoring technical specifications, falsification and alteration of monitoring data and issuance of monitoring reports.
For violations of laws and regulations such as irregularities or fraud in ecological environment inspection and testing (monitoring) institutions and personnel found in supervision and inspection, the market supervision and administration department will order rectification, impose fines or revoke qualification certificates and other penalties in accordance with laws and regulations.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment also said that in the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to cooperate with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other departments to continue to maintain a high-pressure situation of cracking down on fraud and illegal acts of third-party institutions, further strengthen the "penetrating" supervision of big data and artificial intelligence, and use scientific and technological power to build a strong line of defense against counterfeiting, eradicate the breeding ground for illegal crimes in the field of ecology and environment, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the third-party environmental protection service market.