Around the Spring Festival in 2020, the epidemic situation of COVID-19 swept across the land of China. During the special period of national epidemic prevention, lawyers' legal services also encountered multiple practical difficulties. However, the footsteps of Lawyer Sheng Bang in the legal system as a messenger of justice did not stop because of this: Lawyers Huang Chao and Chen Lei from our firm accepted urgent commissions from clients and rushed to other places to overcome the difficulties of handling cases in different places during the epidemic. After arduous defense work, they accurately and professionally defended a major fraud case and achieved significant success. On February 21st, the People's Procuratorate of Yuncheng District, Yunfu City, heard and adopted the lawyer's opinion of innocence defense, and made a decision to "not consider it a crime and not approve the arrest" for a case involving over one million yuan that could result in a sentence of more than ten years in prison if convicted. Mr. Huang, the party involved, was immediately acquitted, and the investigation agency will withdraw the case after clarifying it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disaster rises and walls rise, accomplices fight each other, and they are imprisoned

 

 

 

The case originated from a dispute between shareholders of a partnership enterprise。Mr. Huang, the party involved, partnered with shareholders A and C to operate a real estate project development business in Yunfu City. Due to the lack of knowledge of transaction handling and compliance, the business model is a traditional partnership that relies entirely on acquaintance relationships. The three parties lack clear written agreements on the proportion of shares, division of labor in partnership affairs, and distribution of losses and benefits. As the contradictions of mutual dissatisfaction among partners gradually emerge, the criminal legal risks of private entrepreneurs caused by non-standard operations also gradually emerge. When there are irreconcilable differences and contradictions among the three shareholders in the management of partnership affairs and profit distribution, Mr. Huang, who lacks legal risk prevention awareness and is the actual main manager of partnership affairs, is pushed to the brink of imprisonment. On January 16, 2020, Mr. Huang was criminally filed and detained by the Yuncheng District Public Security Department of Yunfu City on suspicion of fraud. The investigation authorities' charges directly pointed to his suspected fraud of over one million yuan in partnership property of other shareholders. If the accusation is ultimately established, according to the sentencing standards for fraud, Mr. Huang is highly likely to face more than ten years in prison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no time to delay, overcoming multiple difficulties and meeting the urgent needs of customers

 

 

 

When lawyers Huang Chao and Chen Lei from our firm accepted the client's commission, they had already arrived in the last few days of the Lunar New Year of the Pig. Due to this sudden incident, the family members of the client were completely disoriented and tearful all day long. At that time, the COVID-19 epidemic had fully broken out, and at the same time, it was also catching up with the large-scale Spring Festival homecoming tide, and the handling of cases was facing major practical obstacles. According to the client's statement, based on years of case handling experience and professional sense, the two lawyers have preliminarily determined that this case should be a civil economic dispute. The relevant departments have clearly improper handling of the crime of fraud, which does not rule out the possibility of using criminal registration to intervene in economic disputes. The party, Mr. Huang, should be innocent.

 

Due to the urgent needs of the client, even due to the epidemic control and the extreme inconvenience caused by the approaching Spring Festival, the two lawyers immediately decided to carry out their defense without delay, striving for the case to be concluded as soon as possible without guilt, and safeguarding the personal freedom rights of Mr. Huang in accordance with the law. Early that morning, the two lawyers decided to drive a long distance to Yunfu Prison. After overcoming the nearly eight hour traffic jam on the highway and the huge difficulties brought by the almost strict epidemic control, they met with Mr. Huang, who was criminally detained, as soon as possible before the end of the day. During the meeting, after a comprehensive understanding of the detailed process of the case, the lawyer, with years of experience and professional knowledge, further insisted that the case was actually a very complex civil and economic dispute, and that the parties should be judged innocent. At the same time, the two lawyers immediately introduced the preliminary defense plan and specific reasons for the lawyer's innocence defense in this case to the parties, and provided them with professional legal explanations and advice on how to defend themselves. On the same day, the two lawyers decided to stay and continue working despite the negative impact of the epidemic on public opinion. According to the key content of the meeting, the two lawyers guided the family members of the parties to carry out important investigation and evidence collection work, especially collecting a large amount of documentary evidence and witness testimony in the partnership affairs in this case, preliminarily restoring the basic facts of this case, and promptly contacting and communicating with the investigating authorities, expressing a preliminary defense viewpoint of innocence.

 

 

 

The epidemic is rampant, and the comprehensive "suspension" of professional defense and justice delivery will not be "suspended".

 

 

 

After the preliminary work, that is, the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rat, the novel coronavirus epidemic that swept the country affected the nerves of people all over the world, and comprehensively affected the actual life and work of all people. On January 22nd, Wuhan began to close down, and safety and epidemic prevention levels were gradually improved across the country. Various industries across the country were gradually "suspended" due to comprehensive road closures, restrictions on travel, and no resumption of work required for epidemic prevention.

 

In order to prevent the parties from being detained or wrongly convicted due to the epidemic, which may harm their legitimate personal freedom rights, our lawyer's professional criminal defense has not been suspended. With the strong support of the team, the two lawyers organized multiple online meetings to study the case and judicial practice, combined with the facts of the case and related cases, optimized and ultimately determined the specific defense plan for this case. They insisted that this case belongs to a typical civil and economic dispute, and that the parties involved are innocent and should not be subject to criminal prosecution, ensuring that the defense plan for this case is ultimately handled by the investigating authority.Under the dual inconvenient environment of the Spring Festival and epidemic control, the two lawyers faced numerous difficulties in their work. Therefore, they accurately divided their work and fully utilized the convenience of Lawyer Chen Lei in his hometown of Yunfu during the Spring Festival. During the Spring Festival holiday, various parties communicated and tried to meet Mr. Huang multiple times (due to the need for epidemic control, the meetings were all conducted through video meetings in the prison area). During this period, the two lawyers comprehensively understood and investigated the facts of the case, without neglecting any details. At the same time, they also provided meticulous legal advice and defense advice and guidance to the parties. With the professional defense and encouragement of the two lawyers, the parties were greatly encouraged and gradually overcame their initial fear and panic. They firmly believed that through the professional defense of the two lawyers, society would have justice and ultimately obtain innocence. On the other hand, the two lawyers continuously collected evidence and materials related to this case, and communicated with the handling unit in multiple aspects, clearly suggesting that they pay attention to relevant facts and laws in handling the case, to prevent the occurrence of violations of China's multiple explicitly prohibited "use of criminal means to intervene in economic disputes".

 

 

 

Professional and precise defense, ultimately acquitted, and justice arrived as scheduled.

 

 

 

After multiple meetings, repeated communication, in-depth research, and other extensive work, based on the corresponding feedback and professional experience in our work, lawyers Huang Chao and Chen Lei ultimately concluded that the key to the successful defense of this case lies in the investigation authorities gradually persuading the public security organs to withdraw the case before and after the criminal detention is about to expire and the report is submitted to the procuratorate for approval. Most importantly, Ensure the successful persuasion of the prosecutor's office, which fulfills its legal supervision responsibilities and is the subject of public prosecution, to promptly halt the cliff of this case and terminate it in the form of an acquittal decision.Otherwise, according to the criminal sentencing standards for fraud, if the fact that the parties involved in this case are suspected of fraud of over one million yuan is confirmed, Mr. Huang is highly likely to face more than ten years in prison, at which time his life and freedom rights will be greatly damaged. So after much in-depth discussion and based on the achievements of this month's work, the two lawyers summarized and issued a legal opinion on the defense of innocence in this case, which was submitted to the investigation agency.After receiving feedback that the case was still being reported to the prosecutor's office for arrest, the two lawyers accurately calculated the timing of the handover of the handling authority. They immediately contacted the Yuncheng District Prosecutor's Office in Yunfu City and communicated with the prosecutor who handled the arrest for multiple times, clearly expressing the defense opinions of the parties' innocence. They also urged the prosecutor's office to exercise its legal supervision responsibilities correctly and prevent the occurrence of unjust, false, and erroneous cases caused by arbitrary intervention in economic disputes through criminal means. After another meeting with the parties, the two lawyers submitted written defense materials such as the Legal Opinion on the Suggestion of Not Approving the Arrest of Mr. Huang Who Does Not Constitute a Crime of Fraud according to law, clearly suggesting that the procuratorate should bring the suspect up for trial according to law before making a decision to make a correct decision.

 

 

Effort pays off, and justice is never too late. Finally, after carefully listening to the defense opinions of the two lawyers, the procuratorial organs of Yuncheng District recognized and adopted the defense opinions of the two lawyers in accordance with the law. On February 21, 2020, the parties made a decision in accordance with the law that "they believe that it does not constitute a crime and decide not to approve the arrest". That afternoon, after being wrongly detained for over thirty days, Mr. Huang was acquitted and regained his freedom. Justice was not delayed.

 

 

 

Conclusion: In difficult times, justice is not absent - the COVID-19 epidemic sweeping the world has caused major obstacles to all industries nationwide, and legal services for lawyers are no exception. However, in this case, the two lawyers from Legal Sheng Bang were eager to meet the urgent needs of their clients. With a professional spirit of dedication, focus, and advocacy for justice, they overcame numerous difficulties and defended accurately. They promptly delivered innocent and innocent justice to the clients who suffered disasters, reflecting the glorious appearance of our lawyers who continue to provide professional and high-quality legal services despite special difficulties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lawyer introduction:

 

 

Lawyer Introduction: Lawyer Huang Chao

Graduated from the School of Law at Nanjing University with a Master's degree in Law (majoring in Litigation Law) and a Bachelor's degree in Law.

The professional direction of Huang Chao's lawyer team is criminal (economic crime, duty crime) defense, entrepreneur criminal legal risk prevention, company law business, economic law, contract law, and other major civil and commercial economic dispute resolution.

Huang Chao's lawyer team has represented multiple major criminal cases and successfully obtained acquittal, no prosecution, probation or misdemeanor penalties for multiple clients, as well as handling multiple bail pending trials. In terms of corporate law business, I have represented multiple litigation (arbitration) cases, including major investment and financing disputes of listed companies, and also served as a perennial legal advisor for multiple large enterprises.

 

 

 

Lawyer Chen Lei

 

 

Graduated from Guangdong Peizheng University with a Bachelor's degree in Law

Lawyer Chen Lei's professional fields include: criminal defense, company legal counsel and civil and commercial litigation, insurance disputes and insurance recovery, and marriage cases.

Since practicing, Lawyer Chen Lei has handled multiple cases involving infringement of citizens' personal rights, property infringement, criminal activities, major bribery crimes, and prevention and control of criminal risks. Successfully obtained non prosecution, probation, or misdemeanor penalties for multiple clients, and processed multiple bail pending trials. Simultaneously successfully handled multiple major and complex civil and commercial cases, contract disputes, civil and commercial payment recovery litigation, commercial arbitration, and commercial dispute resolution.