Before going abroad, Geng Zhifan's younger brother Geng Zhixuan was in charge of visa consulting business at a study abroad agency in this province.

In the process, Geng Zhixuan found that the company's visa business actually had a lot of loopholes, so he wanted to make a fortune before going out. So without resigning, he secretly used his girlfriend's ID card to set up a company called Bright Future, and then transferred part of the visa business of the company to his Bright Future company.

Subsequently, Geng Zhixuan signed the "Consultant Agreement" with 12 people in the name of Bright Future, specifically to provide customers with visa services abroad, and collected a total of 380,000 yuan in visa fees in the name of Bright Future.

However, Geng Zhixuan actually did not apply for a visa for the above-mentioned person to go abroad, and all the money was used to pay the rent of the company, repay the arrears or squander it.

After that, Geng Zhixuan fled to the country of Bangzi, and later obtained the nationality of that country. After entering the territory at the beginning of this year, he was arrested by the police.

The Intermediate People's Court held that the defendant Geng Zhixuan, for the purpose of illegal possession, fabricated facts and defrauded others of money, and his conduct constituted the crime of fraud.

The amount of fraud is particularly huge, and the circumstances are serious. In accordance with the provisions of Articles 266, 6, 12, 35 and 64 of the Criminal Law, the judgment is as follows:

1. Defendant Geng Zhixuan committed the crime of fraud and was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, a fine of 300,000 yuan, and deportation.

2. Continue to recover the stolen money obtained by Geng Zhixuan's fraud and return it in accordance with law.

After the first-instance verdict was announced, Geng Zhixuan was dissatisfied and appealed. The court of second instance was the Provincial High Court, so Geng Zhixuan's elder brother Geng Zhifan came to the location of the Provincial High Court, ready to entrust a local lawyer to represent his younger brother in the case.

Geng Zhifan is an investor, and he also invests in the city, so he knows a lot of local businessmen, Geng Zhifan found a few old friends in the city, and after being recommended by friends, Geng Zhifan met four lawyers in a row in the past two days, and Fang Yi was the fourth lawyer he saw.

"Mr. Geng, although your brother and the defense lawyer both defended not guilty in the first instance, judging from the circumstances of the case, your brother must have committed a crime, but it should be a unit crime, and it should be a contract fraud...... I think there is still a chance in this case.

But the opportunity I am talking about is not the chance of innocence, but the opportunity to defend the lesser crime. Fang Yi said bluntly.

"Oh? Is there any difference between the crime of contract fraud you mentioned and the crime of fraud convicted by the court? Geng Zhifan looked at Fang Yi suspiciously, in his opinion, it was all a fraud, but the name was different.

"Let me give you a general explanation, the Criminal Code has a principle of treating the old with light. Your brother's case took place before the return of HK, which also coincided with the revision of the Criminal Law. So your brother's case has a question of whether the new law or the old law applies.

The "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of Fraud" (effective April 8, 2011) provides: Where public or private property is defrauded with a value of 3,000 to 10,000 RMB, 30,000 to 100,000 RMB, or 500,000 RMB, it shall be respectively found to be 'relatively large' and 'huge' or 'especially huge' as provided for in article 266 of the Criminal Law.

According to the provisions of the detailed rules for the implementation of this province's "Sentencing Guiding Opinions on Common Crimes", the starting sentence and base sentence for the statutory sentence of between 3 and 10 years imprisonment (1) defrauding public or private property, and the amount of the crime reaches the starting point of 70,000 yuan for 'huge amounts'. The starting sentence and base sentence for legally-prescribed sentences within the range of 10 years or more imprisonment, (1) Fraud of public or private property, and the amount of the crime reaches the starting point of 500,000 RMB for 'especially huge amounts'.

According to the above provisions, the amount of fraud committed by your brother should be a huge amount, and the sentence is between three and ten years in prison. Fang Yi explained.

"Then why was my brother sentenced to eleven years? Isn't that a violation of the law? Geng Zhifan was a little confused, since there is a clear legal provision, why does the court still have to make such a judgment.

"This is because the provisions of the 1979 Criminal Code are different from the current Criminal Law, and your brother's case occurred before the 79 amendment, but your brother's trial was after the amendment.

According to Article 152 of the Criminal Law of 1979, whoever defrauds public or private property in a huge amount shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years, and if the circumstances are especially serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and may also be sentenced to confiscation of property.

According to Article 1 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Fraud Cases (1996), and in accordance with the provisions of Articles 151 and 152 of the Criminal Law, defrauding public or private property in a relatively large amount constitutes the crime of fraud. Where an individual defrauds public or private property of 2,000 yuan or more, it is a "relatively large amount"; Where an individual defrauds public or private property of 30,000 yuan or more, it is a "huge amount". Where an individual defrauds public or private property of 200,000 yuan or more, the amount of fraud is particularly huge.

Your brother defrauded more than 300,000 yuan, so the court found that the amount of fraud was particularly huge.

In my opinion, the court of first instance made an error in applying the criminal law, which is why it convicted your brother of a particularly large amount of crime and sentenced him to 11 years. ”

"Oh, that's it. I went to observe the trial.

Although my brother did not consider his actions a crime, he did not deny receiving money. So I see what you mean. My brother must have committed a crime, and if his sentence can be reduced, I will be very grateful. Geng Zhifan replied with firm eyes.

"Mr. Geng, to be honest, we didn't handle the first instance of your brother's case, so the workload of the second instance will be very large, plus you asked lawyer Fang to preside over your brother's case, so the lawyer's fee will be relatively high." Xie Youhe saw that the other party had the intention of entrusting, so he interjected.

"Well, I understand this, my brother's case was handled by my company's legal counsel before, and he also told me something about this.

If this case is handled by a lawyer, I don't know how much the lawyer's fee will be? After Geng Zhifan finished speaking, he looked at Fang Yi.

Geng Zhifan's company's legal counsel is also an old lawyer, and the reason why he mentioned the high cost of changing lawyers was to let Geng Zhifan continue to entrust him to handle the second trial.

However, Geng Zhifan felt that he did not do well in the first trial, so he blindly accommodated his younger brother, and said according to his ideas, but did not play the role of a lawyer, and finally led to his younger brother being sentenced to 11 years.

In fact, Geng Zhifan didn't want to think about why the lawyer would defend like this, a slap in the face could not be heard, there were reasons for the lawyer, and there were also reasons why his younger brother did not admit guilt.

(End of chapter)