On June 19, the Hunan Provincial High People's Court publicly pronounced a verdict in a crime case involving a mafia-type organization with a total of 25 defendants, the main offender, Wen Liehong, was sentenced to life imprisonment for 15 crimes, including organizing and leading a mafia-type organization, fraud, and bribery.
Recently, a Nandu reporter interviewed and learned that in this case of Wen Liehong's criminal organization involved in the so-called "first case of the Three Xiangs' anti-gang crime," the mafia-type organization amassed a large amount of illegal wealth by means of illegal lending, violent debt collection, gambling fraud, and other means, and the cash and property that were seized and seized were discounted by more than 1.2 billion yuan.
Wen Liehong made his fortunes out of card fraud, and his economic power expanded dramatically after granting loans and charging high interest rates. In the process of illegally accumulating wealth, Wen Liehong has repeatedly recruited more than 70 unemployed social workers to become his "horse boys", and gradually embarked on the road of opening casinos, lending usury, violent debt collection and other illegal crimes.
<h5>On June 19, the Hunan Provincial Higher People's Court pronounced a second-instance judgment on the case of Wen Liehong and 25 other people who were organized by the mafia-type organization. The picture comes from the WeChat public account of Hunan High Court</h5>
<h2>The "case within a case" led to clues related to the black market, and the entrepreneur owed 700 million yuan in usurious loans and was detained</h2>
In July 2016, the Dingcheng District Public Security Bureau of Changde City discovered a "case within a case" while investigating the case of Zhang Moubo, chairman of the Hunan Institute of Foreign Economics, who was suspected of forging company seals. Zhang Moubo claimed that he owed Wen Liehong a usurious debt, the company's seal was withheld by Wen Liehong, and he himself had been illegally detained by Wen Liehong's men for up to a year.
After grasping this clue, on August 19 of the same year, the Dingcheng District Public Security Bureau launched an investigation into the "case of Zhang Moubo's illegal detention" and arrested Zhang Xiangwei, Huang Zemeng and other criminal suspects who directly carried out illegal detention of Zhang Moubo. Through interrogation, the suspects all confessed and said that their illegal detention of Zhang Moubo was directed by Shu Kai. From this, the case points to Wen Liehong, who is called "boss" by Shu Kai.
From December 2011 to October 2012, Zhang Moubo borrowed more than 300 million yuan from Wen Liehong for the development of the Changsha Riding Dragon Avenue project. By April 2014, Zhang Moubo had paid Wen Liehong more than 1.3 billion yuan in principal and interest. However, according to the rules of Wen Liehong's organization of usury, Zhang Moubo still owes Wen Liehong more than 200 million yuan in principal.
After the Changde Municipal Public Security Bureau reported to the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department on the "case of Zhang Moubo's illegal detention," Huang Guanchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and then director of the Public Security Department, asked the Changde Municipal Bureau to take this as a breakthrough point to "expand the line of investigation" and thoroughly investigate the facts of the case.
On February 15, 2017, the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department set up a special case team to designate wen Liehong's case as under the jurisdiction of the Changde Municipal Public Security Bureau, and dispatched more than 100 elite police forces from Changde, Changsha, Xiangxi and other places to participate in the case. On February 28, the special case team launched a centralized arrest operation in Changsha City, arresting Wen Liehong, She Bin, Gong Hao and other major criminal suspects, and subsequently, other members of the organization were arrested. On June 21 of the same year, the case was formally filed and investigated for organizing, leading, and participating in organized crime of a triad nature.
Since the launch of the nationwide special struggle against organized crime and evil forces, the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission has carried out special studies on many occasions to promote the resonance of punishing corruption and cracking down on "umbrellas" and eliminating criminal syndicates and evil forces. Fu Kui, member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, secretary of the Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission, and director of the Provincial Supervision Commission, has issued instructions on many occasions, calling on all localities to punish corruption and crack down on "umbrellas" to investigate them to the end.
On August 24, the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department and the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection set up a special case group and a "guarantee" group to crack down on the case, and the anti-gang crime and "umbrella crackdown" were promoted simultaneously.
<h5>The scene of the trial. The picture comes from the WeChat public account of Hunan High Court</h5>
<h2>In retaliation, he sent people to slash three times and control the equity and seal of other people's companies</h2>
Zhang Moubo is a key figure in The Case of Wen Liehong, and the two have dealt with each other for many years as "card friends".
In July 2014, Wen Liehong held a grudge against Zhang Moubo for failing to return tens of millions of yuan of loans on time and also reported his illegal crimes to the public security organs. In retaliation, Wen Liehong offered 1 million yuan to She Bin, a key member of his organization, and instructed him to cut off one of Zhang's legs or one hand. After that, Zhang Moubo was slashed and other injured in public three times, including one of which was slashed twice in the forehead.
During Zhang Moubo's hospitalization, Wen Liehong also used the name of visiting to check on his injuries, and after finding out that Zhang Jianbo's injuries were not serious, he ordered She Bin to continue to find opportunities to start.
In the process of forcing Zhang Moubo to return the usury loan, in addition to controlling Zhang Moubo's personal freedom, Wen Liehong's organization also controlled the equity, seal, and online signature U shield of Zhang Moubo's real estate development company, which successively led to the rupture of the capital chain of Zhang Moubo's development of the Qilong Avenue real estate in Changsha, resulting in the seizure of the property, the suspension of the project, and the collective protection of the rights of migrant workers, owners and project managers.
Taking the Changsha Dragon Riding Street project as an example, in April 2014, Wen Liehong found that after Zhang Moubo used the project to finance, the sales proceeds were not used to return his usurious loans, so he forced Zhang Moubo to hand over all the online signature U shields and re-apply for an online signature U shield with administrator authority. Wen Liehong's daughter Wen Ya, at the suggestion of her father, then signed all 255 properties that can be sold in the Dragon Riding Avenue project to her own name through this online signature U shield, resulting in the suspension of the real estate sales business and triggering mass petitions.
At that time, the Changsha Keda Branch of the Bank of Communications issued a loan of 300 million yuan to the Dragon Riding Street project developed by Zhang Moubo, and the head of the bank, Duan Mou, committed suicide because he saw no hope of recovering the money.
<h2>The poor family made a fortune by gambling and built 30 acres of "private estates"</h2>
Born in Changsha, Hunan Province, Wen Liehong began to accumulate wealth in the Wangcheng District of Changsha City, Hunan Province, in the 1980s and 1990s through aquatic products trafficking, contracting projects, and playing card fraud.
Wen Liehong's parents are farmers, and the family's economic conditions are not good. When he was 13 years old, he went to sell small vegetables alone, and at three or four o'clock in the morning, he went to the vegetable market to set up a stall, and he was a person who entered and sold vegetables. Around the age of 17, he began to contract projects, and then opened motorcycle shops, Internet cafes, and sold aquatic products. Liu Huijun, a post procurator of the Changde City Procuratorate, told the Nandu reporter that Wen Liehong dropped out of school before graduating from primary school, became obsessed with playing cards and gambling money during the period of "breaking in" outside, and "went out of the old thousands" at the card table, and earned a large amount of illegal capital by setting up sets and cheating.
Since 1997, Wen Liehong has been "well-known" in the area of Qiaoyi Town, Wangcheng County (now Wangcheng District) in Changsha City, Hunan Province, for repeated gambling cheating (commonly known as "killing pigs") and beating others at will. Locally, Wen Liehong is also known as the "king of cash" - his vehicle trunk has a safe in the trunk for a long time, which can provide tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan in cash at any time for loan sharking, gambling and so on.
At the beginning of 2016, Wen Liehong repeatedly lost money in gambling, and the idea of cheating gamblers by peeking at the cards of gamblers was born. In April of the same year, Wen Liehong invited Jiang Mouping, a well-known business owner in Hunan, to gamble in the chess and card room of his villa.
Unbeknownst to several people who went to the appointment, Wen Liehong had instructed his subordinates Shu Kai and others in advance to install monitoring and stealing equipment in the chess and card room of his villa. After Wen Liehong's men stole the card information of others through the monitoring equipment, Shu Kai instructed Wen Liehong to play the cards. After this card play, Wen Liehong cheated more than 15 million yuan, his subordinate Shu Kai received a reward of 40,000 yuan, and the other three each received 10,000 yuan.
Between April and July 2016, Wen Liehong committed fraud through the above methods three times, defrauding more than 30 million yuan of gambling funds.
Wen Liehong set up a gambling game in a villa he built in Qiaoyi Town, Wangcheng District, Changsha City, after his own debut, and this nearly 30-acre residence is more like a "private manor". Prosecutor Liu Huijun had been to this villa during his case handling, and "it took more than ten or twenty minutes to walk around the perimeter of Wen Liehong's residence." He (Wen Liehong) also built a special road leading to his villa. As soon as the main entrance is a fountain, there is a mountain behind the villa, and there are street lamps and pavilions along the way. ”
In September 2014, Wen Liehong also sent someone to negotiate with the villagers of Minfu Village, Qiaoyi Town, Wangcheng District, Changsha City, to buy 9.3 mu of basic farmland for 20,000 yuan or 25,000 yuan per mu, and built a fish pond and half a basketball court in front of his villa.
<h2>The amount involved in the case exceeded 1.2 billion yuan, and the next time he received a "sealing fee" of 6 million</h2> yuan
In February 2010, Wen Liehong established Hunan Hongda Pawnshop Co., Ltd., and since then embarked on the road of opening casinos, lending usury, violent debt collection and other illegal crimes, and a mafia-type organization with Wen Liehong as the organizer and leader has been formed.
As of the time of the case, the mafia-type organization had amassed a large amount of illegal wealth by means of illegal lending, violent debt collection, and gambling fraud, and the property involved in the case included more than 10 vehicles, more than 100 bank accounts and securities accounts, more than 200 mu of land, more than 280 real estate, and more than 1,000 valuables, and the cash and property seized and seized by the criminal organization were discounted by more than 1.2 billion yuan.
Wen Liehong has absolute authority in the organization, and there are some unwritten rules and disciplines in the organization. For example, in an orderly manner, "horse boys" must not cross the level of liaison reports; they must be loyal to the organization and will be severely punished if they betray them; they must do their best to discuss merits and rewards; they must keep secrets, and key members are given tasks alone.
In this organization, when the "little brother" has an accident, the "boss" will be responsible for the balance, such as the backbone member She Bin, who did not confess to Wen Liehong during the interrogation process after instructing others to cut zhang Moubo and was caught by the public security organs. After that, Wen Liehong not only paid bribes to relevant personnel to help She Bin evade the crackdown, but also rewarded She Bin with an additional reward of more than 6 million yuan.
Wen Liehong will use some of the illegally obtained property to pay so-called "wages" and "bonuses" to members of the organization, arrange for the members of the organization to undertake projects, provide funds to lend usurious loans to the members of the organization, and also provide funds for the "horse boys" under his command to commit crimes and escapes, instruct the members of the organization to collude in confessions and issue "sealing fees", provide living expenses for the members of the organization detained for committing crimes, and help the members of the organization evade legal prosecution, so as to support the survival, development and growth of the criminal organization.
<h2>Some people accepted bribes of more than 20 million yuan, and many "protective umbrellas" were arrested one after another</h2>
On February 28, 2017, during a centralized arrest operation in Changsha, Wen Liehong, She Bin, Gong Hao and other major suspects were arrested and arrested, and subsequently, other members of the organization were also arrested.
The relevant person in charge of the criminal investigation detachment of the Changde Municipal Public Security Bureau had participated in the interrogation of Wen Liehong, and in his opinion, Wen Liehong's psychological endurance was very strong and he was also good at analysis and judgment.
"He (Wen Liehong) has always believed that there are people out there ('umbrellas') who will be released sooner or later as long as they do not admit to the crime. He also publicly told us that he would be locked up for 37 days at most, so the first two months of the trial had been 'zero confession'. He also analyzes and judges the extent to which we have evidence from every sentence and every action in our interrogation. In order to seek a breakthrough, the interrogation team conducted a comprehensive study of Wen Liehong's psychological and personality characteristics and made a detailed interrogation plan.
While the special case group set up by the Hunan Provincial Public Security Department is carrying out the investigation, the "guarantee" group set up by the Hunan Provincial Discipline Inspection Commission is also advancing at the same time.
In the course of committing the crime, Wen Liehong's mafia-related criminal organization has successively paid huge bribes to 7 state workers, amounting to more than 25 million yuan. Among them were Zhou Fubo, former director of the Hunan Provincial Comprehensive Management Office and former executive deputy director of the Provincial Public Security Department, and Shan Dayong, former executive deputy director of the Changsha Municipal Public Security Bureau.
State functionaries who act as "protective umbrellas" for Wen Liehong's criminal organizations involved in organized crime have also repeatedly shielded and connived at their criminal activities. The Changsha Municipal Public Security Bureau once opened a case against Zhang Moubo for reporting that Wen Liehong was suspected of illegal business operations. In order to confront Zhang Moubo, Wen Liehong not only reported to the Changsha Municipal Public Security Bureau that Zhang Moubo was suspected of privately engraving the company seal, but also through the shielding of Shan Dayong and others, leading the Changsha Municipal Public Security Organ to withdraw wen Liehong's reported crime and make a criminal detention decision on Zhang Moubo's reported crime.
According to the Changde Municipal People's Procuratorate, because some of the bribe recipients involved Changsha, Zhuzhou, Yongzhou, Huaihua, Xiangxi and other regions, the investigation was difficult. Finally, the procuratorial and supervision organs in many regions cooperated and cooperated to re-collect a large amount of evidentiary materials, and further reviewed the bribe recipients and key witnesses.
On February 28, 2017, the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection opened an investigation into Zhou Fubo. In addition to Zhou Fubo, Shan Dayong and many other "protective umbrellas" were arrested one after another, and the other personnel involved in the case were punished by party discipline and government affairs, and 56 people were organized and handled.
By the end of July, discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels in Hunan Province had investigated and dealt with 6,396 cases of mafia-related and vicious corruption and "protective umbrella" problems, filed cases for examination and investigation of 1,489 people, given 953 party and government disciplinary sanctions, and transferred 118 people to judicial organs.
<h2>There were 84 cases of violations and crimes, and the case was handled separately to "fight money and cut off blood"</h2>
On March 10, 2018, the Changde Municipal People's Procuratorate set up a special case team to review and prosecute Wen Liehong's case.
"Because Wen Liehong's mafia-related organization is quite different from the traditional triad-related organization, on the basis of finding out the facts of each illegal crime, we comprehensively evaluate the behavior, status, and role of each person involved in the case, forming a review report for sub-crimes and an individual review report, and on this basis, forming a comprehensive report on the whole case." In addition, we comprehensively investigated the property status of the mafia-related organization and its members, and accurately defined the property involved in the case and the property outside the case. According to the relevant responsible person of the Changde Municipal People's Procuratorate, in order to destroy the economic foundation bred by the criminal syndicates and evil forces and persist in "cracking down on money and cutting off blood," the procuratorate arranged a special team to review the assets involved in the Wen Liehong case, conducted a one-by-one review and screening of assets involved in the case and more than 1,000 bank accounts, and supplemented 13 volumes of file materials.
There are 25 defendants in the Wen Liehong case, and 60 criminal and illegal acts have been committed. Due to the complexity of the case, the Changde Municipal People's Procuratorate and the Changde Intermediate People's Court reached a consensus on the handling of the case separately based on the facts of the case.
It is understood that the division of cases is first divided into two, separating the cases of members of mafia-type organizations and non-members of organizations. In addition, the "protective umbrella" of the mafia-type organization has been separated during the investigation stage and prosecuted in a separate case. The third is to divide the cases of the 25 defendants identified as members of the mafia-type organization into three cases for public prosecution and trial without lowering the trial level.
"Wen Liehong has a lot of control over this criminal organization, and even when he appears in court, the members of his organization are still extremely afraid of him in the face of Wen Liehong. For example, during the pre-trial conference, Wen Liehong proposed to "exclude illegal evidence" (exclude illegal evidence), and the 3 backbone elements who did not originally apply for "exclusion of illegality" also applied in court. During the trial, Wen Liehong flatly denied the facts of the crime, and the backbone elements either denied it or remained silent. According to the relevant person in charge of the Changde Intermediate People's Court, if a case is handled, it will be very difficult to face Wen Liehong in court and ask his relatives to identify the facts of his crime.
From this point of view, division of cases is conducive to trial organization and improves trial efficiency. It is also conducive to protecting the rights of defendants and defenders, and each person has sufficient time to express his or her own defense opinions and statements.
Before the first-instance trial began, the main victim, Zhang Moubo, agreed to appear in court to testify under repeated persuasion by the procuratorate. When Zhang Moubo testified in court, he recounted his own personal experience, and confirmed in court that Wen Liehong's mafia-related organization had caused great harm to his individuals, families, and companies.
On January 15, 2019, the Intermediate People's Court of Changde City, Hunan Province, rendered a first-instance judgment in the case of Wen Liehong, who was the first to convict Wen Liehong of 15 crimes, including organizing and leading a mafia-type organization, fraud, bribery, and extortion, and was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, and confiscation of all property, and 24 other members of the criminal group were sentenced to 1 to 25 years in prison. On June 19, the Hunan Provincial Higher People's Court pronounced a second-instance judgment on Wen Liehong's case, rejecting the appeal and upholding the original judgment.
Written by: Nandu reporter Qin Chuqiao sent from Changsha, Hunan