□ Our reporter Wang Chun
□ Our correspondent Jin Jing Wang Anfeng
A number of oil tanks with different numbers are stored in a remote open space far from the city center. After careful control, the public security organs finally arrested the illegal personnel suspected of manufacturing and selling fake and inferior refined oil products. However, what the prosecutor is facing is the dilemma of "zero confession" and electronic accounts with no sales categories and vague words. The procuratorate of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province used big data to uncover the truth and filed a criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuit.
In May 2022, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced the defendant Zhang Ming to 15 years’ imprisonment and fined him 130 million yuan for the crime of producing and selling fake and inferior products. Dai Jun was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 10 million yuan. At the same time, the court ordered Zhang Ming to pay compensation of more than 1.07 million yuan to the public interest litigation prosecutor Hangzhou Procuratorate, and Dai Jun was jointly and severally liable for compensation of more than 900,000 yuan. The two appealed. Recently, the Higher People’s Court of Zhejiang Province ruled that the first-instance judgment was upheld.
Data speak
Zhang Ming used to be a public official. He was sentenced and expelled from public office for misappropriating public funds. After he was released from prison in 2017, he suddenly made a fortune and became the actual controller of many energy companies, suspected of producing and selling fake and inferior refined oil. In 2019, the administrative law enforcement agencies carried out special rectification actions, but it was empty. In 2020, the public security organs gathered around the net and finally seized more than 400 tons of unsold oil products from Zhang Ming and more than 10 tons of oil products from secondary dealers. The average sulfur content of these seized oils is 16 times higher than the standard value, and the cargo value is only more than 1 million yuan. Subsequently, the public security organs found some of the next homes, and according to their identification and evidence such as transfer vouchers provided, when they were transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution at the end of 2020, the sales amount was locked at 20 million yuan.
The electronic accounts seized on the spot have sales amount, quantity and time, but there is no sales category, only the word "oil", which has no head or tail and the direction is unknown. Looking at the vague electronic accounts, the prosecutor believes that there are still tricks that have not yet been ascertained.
With the coordination of the procuratorate, 1.27.9 g and 8.24 million WeChat chat records retained by 9 mobile phones were successfully recovered with the support of the technical department. The electronic evidence clearly shows the details of Zhang and his employees’ contact with their last home to purchase, win over their next home to sell, instruct oil delivery workers to evade inspection, and corrode public officials. "I just adjust the oil, and I mainly do the National Sixth (a type of fuel)" "Last year, I basically drove a few cars every day, but I got less this year" "I have to check and let the oil delivery workers avoid it" "The proportion of mixed oil is very particular, adding green powder makes the green oil sell better" "The quality of the National Sixth I do is the same as that of the gas station" … … These evidences truly and objectively reproduce the whole process of manufacturing and selling fake and inferior refined oil.
Recreate the crime scene
In March, 2021, in order to further investigate and verify the details of mixed oil and sales, prosecutors returned to the re-survey site of an oil depot where Zhang Ming stored oil and mixed oil, and found that there was a large open space and a row of three-story bungalows, far from the city center, which was sparsely populated and very hidden. UAV aerial photography shows that there are 13 oil tanks on the site, of which 10 are hidden in weeds in the backyard, 3 are placed in the open space in the front yard, 2 are erected and 1 is placed horizontally. The detailed shooting of the real scene shows that the oil tanks are connected by rubber pipes, and the oil products are controlled by valves.
Underground pipelines are also buried under the open space of the oil depot. Oil products of different qualities are mixed in the horizontal tank in the backyard, and then flow into the vertical tank in the front yard through the deep underground, and then transported to the private gas station and other oil depots actually controlled by Zhang Ming through the modified tanker, and sold as vehicle diesel oil that meets the national standards.
At the same time, the audit institution counted the abnormal situation of inconsistent purchase and sale invoices, and screened and sorted out the sales price recorded in the electronic accounts. The prosecutor supplemented the wholesale price of the current national listing and found that the sales price recorded in the electronic accounts was much lower than the wholesale price, which also confirmed that the refined oil sold by Zhang Ming at a low price was fake and inferior diesel.
Prosecutors used big data to collect evidence, on-the-spot investigation and professional audit to form a complete evidence system, and prosecuted Zhang Ming’s sales amount from 20 million yuan to 270 million yuan. Later, Zhang Ming was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Find the fish that slipped through the net
Can such a big business be eaten by one person alone? The prosecutor found that Dai Jun, a former shareholder who was not arrested, needed to pay attention.
In the face of interrogation, Dai Jun began to argue that he was a handyman, regardless of things. The prosecutor keenly caught the signs of retraction, so he fixed the interrogation process by synchronizing audio and video recordings throughout the whole process, and fully exercised the supplementary investigation right, starting with the employees who entered the oil depot early, and reinforcing the evidence with 22 relevant witness testimonies. The verbal evidence is interlocking, which proves that she participated in the work of oil mixing, color mixing and financial management of the company. This also laid a solid foundation for the successful conviction of Dai Jun after his full confession in the later period.
In May 2021, Dai Jun was arrested additionally, and the amount of sales he participated in was prosecuted to 240 million yuan, and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. As the remaining 10 people involved in the case were investigated and dealt with according to law, criminal gangs that produced and sold fake and inferior refined oil products, led by Zhang Ming and Dai Jun, were caught in the net.
Liangjian public interest litigation
The appraisal report on file shows that the highest sulfur content of non-refined oil exceeds 62 times of the national standard. If the fuel is not up to standard, will it aggravate air pollution? The prosecutor immediately transferred the relevant clues to the public interest litigation procuratorial department of the procuratorate.
In May 2021, prosecutors filed criminal and civil public interest lawsuits against Zhang Ming and Dai Jun for producing and selling fake and inferior products according to law. While being convicted by the court, they also assumed the responsibility of compensation for ecological damage caused by environmental pollution.
Why did the criminal gang remain undiscovered for many years, and the rectification action was once empty? Prosecutors comprehensively reviewed and sorted out the evidence materials, found four clues about job violations and disciplines, and transferred them to relevant departments simultaneously. Up to now, three public officials have been investigated and dealt with according to law.
Refined oil is an important strategic material related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, and it is also known as "black gold". Under the profiteering, crimes are surging. At the same time of heavy blows, prosecutors strive for the ultimate in the spirit of artisans, supervise and handle cases in supervision, never let go of every clue and never indulge any "umbrella", so that prosecutors can perform their duties actively to safeguard judicial justice and be guardians of people’s better life.
(The parties in the text are all pseudonyms)