Recently, Dong Xiaohua, senior partner of Gaopeng Law Firm, lawyer Feng Chengcheng and lawyer Feng Wei respectively handled four cases, and successfully obtained effective defense results such as the removal of some charges and some facts at the stage of review and prosecution, the removal of some charges and some facts at the stage of court trial, the revocation of the arrest decision by the procuratorate at the investigation stage, and the change of compulsory measures at the stage of review and prosecution to release them on bail pending trial.

Case one

In the case handled by lawyers Dong Xiaohua and Feng Wei involving two crimes, the procuratorate did not prosecute the crime of accepting bribes by non-state employees, and reduced the amount of the crime of embezzlement of duty

Person Z was suspected of the crime of accepting bribes and embezzling his position as a non-state functionary, and was opened for investigation by a county public security bureau in Henan Province in May 2022. On October 9, 2022, Z's family established a client relationship with Lawyer Dong, when the case was still in the investigation stage. At that time, it coincided with the outbreak of a new round of epidemic in Beijing, which led to many obstacles to the development of various work such as business trips and meetings. However, under such circumstances, Lawyer Dong and Lawyer Feng insisted on submitting legal opinions to the case-handling authorities many times by submitting written materials and telephone communication.

On November 21, 2022, the investigation of this case was concluded by the county public security bureau, and it was transferred to the county people's procuratorate for review and prosecution, and it was found that Z was suspected of the crime of accepting bribes of more than 1.4 million yuan and the crime of embezzlement of position of more than 200,000 yuan. Subsequently, despite the twists and turns, Lawyer Dong and Lawyer Feng read all the dossier materials of the case in the fastest possible time. After in-depth analysis and research, it was unanimously agreed that Z's behavior did not belong to the convenience of his position, and did not have the subjective intention of accepting bribes. At the same time, a large number of economic accounts of the two parties over the past 10 years have been carefully sorted out, and other relevant evidence has been collected, which fully supports the legitimacy of the money involved. In the end, it was concluded that the allegation was unfoundable.

In addition, on the issue of the crime of embezzlement of duty, lawyers Dong and Feng argued from the two aspects of the unreasonableness of the appraisal conclusion and the appraisal standard on which it should be based, and held that the amount of the accusation was obviously high and could not be established.

On the basis of the above work, detailed written legal opinions were drafted and submitted to the procuratorate twice. At the same time, telephone communication with the procurator in charge on the facts and qualitative issues of the case was also held on many occasions.

Finally, when the procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the court on December 30, 2022, on the basis of adopting the lawyer's opinion, it abandoned the prosecution of the crime of bribery of non-state employees, and at the same time, the amount of the crime of embezzlement was reduced by more than 50,000 yuan.

Case II

In the case involving three crimes handled by lawyers Dong Xiaohua and Feng Wei, the court did not recognize the crime of illegally transferring or reselling the right to the use of the land, and reduced the amount of fraud by more than 10 million yuan

G was suspected of the crimes of fraud, usury loans, illegal transfer and resale of land use rights, and was tried by a court in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The procuratorate accused G of defrauding more than 17 million yuan in compensation for demolition and relocation; More than 56 million yuan of usury on-loans, making a profit of more than 3 million yuan; Illegally transferred and resold land use rights, making a profit of more than 31 million yuan. On July 22, 2022, a family member of G established a client relationship with Lawyer Dong, at which time the case was already in the court trial stage, with tight time and heavy tasks.

After reading the case file materials from the court, Lawyer Dong and Lawyer Feng made a comprehensive analysis of the facts, evidence and qualitative issues of the three crimes after intensive reading of the file. It was clearly stated that G's "equity transfer with land use right as the content" should not be treated as a crime, and fully demonstrated from ten aspects, and wrote a special article on this focus issue (Gao Peng Law Firm public number 2022-11-8). It is clearly stated that the public prosecution has made an error in characterizing the crime of fraud, and the amount of the sentence is obviously wrong. It is clearly pointed out that there are obvious problems of unclear facts and insufficient evidence in usury loans.

On September 21, 2022, the court held a trial of the case, and Lawyer Dong vigorously cross-examined and counterattacked the prosecution's evidence, fully issued the above defense opinions, and submitted a more detailed and complete written defense opinion to the court after the trial.

Finally, on December 28, 2022, the court rendered a first-instance judgment, fully adopting the lawyer's defense opinions on the illegal transfer and resale of land use rights, and did not recognize the crime; The lawyer's defense opinion on the amount of punishment for fraud was adopted, and the amount of fraud crime was reduced by more than 10 million yuan.

Case three

Lawyer Feng Wei's case involving the crime of falsely issuing VAT special invoices successfully revoked the arrest decision

Person C was suspected of the crime of falsely issuing VAT special invoices, and a Beijing public security sub-bureau opened a case for investigation in September 2022. On October 19, 2022, C's family established a client relationship with lawyer Feng Wei. At this time, C had been approved by the procuratorate for arrest.

Through meeting with C and his family, Lawyer Feng gave them a full explanation of the law and corrected their original misunderstanding. He also firmly believes that C is only the nominal legal representative of the company, and he is not aware of the acts involved, and the legal basis, factual basis and evidence for pursuing his criminal responsibility are obviously insufficient. Where the arrest has already been approved, the decision to arrest shall be revoked or replaced by other coercive measures. He has also submitted legal opinions to the procuratorate and the public security bureau six times, and communicated with various case-handling personnel on the case situation by telephone many times.

Finally, on January 5, 2023, the procuratorate made a decision to revoke C's arrest, and C was finally spared the pain of detention.

Case IV

Lawyer Dong Xiaohua and Lawyer Feng Chengcheng handled G's case involving the crime of falsely issuing VAT special invoices, and successfully obtained bail pending trial

G was criminally detained on September 19, 2022 on suspicion of the crime of falsely issuing VAT special invoices, and was arrested on October 15, 2022. After G was arrested, lawyer Dong Xiaohua and lawyer Feng Chengcheng of our firm were entrusted to act as defenders, and lawyer Dong and lawyer Feng arranged to meet with the parties as soon as possible after being entrusted to keep abreast of the situation of the case.

Later, lawyers Dong and Feng submitted an application for a review of the necessity of detention to the procuratorate, but refused to file the case on the grounds that the evidence was not fixed. On December 12, 2022, the case was transferred to the procuratorate for review and prosecution. When most of the staff of the procuratorate were infected with the new crown, with the cooperation of the assistant procurator handling the case, they took photos and read the files, and the lawyers grasped the content of the case files for the first time. Subsequently, Lawyers Dong and Feng again submitted an application for a review of the necessity of detention and related materials to the procuratorate. At the same time, based on the circumstances of this case, he has repeatedly communicated effectively with the procurator on the handling of similar cases in the past. In the end, G was successfully released on bail on January 6, 2023.

In 2022, due to the continuous ravages of the epidemic, the whole society has been hit hard, and all industries are waiting to be prosperous. Despite the difficult times, we are full of hope. Over the past year, our struggle has never stopped, and we have worked hard together. In the past year, although there are some unavoidable regrets, we have resolutely reaped successes again and again. The four successive good news at the end of the year are not only enough to soothe the difficulties of the past, but also the icing on the cake for the steady development of our team.

Criminal defense lawyers, with heavy responsibilities on their shoulders, can only move forward courageously with the heart of a child. In 2023, we will continue to be persistent and courageous as always, continue to write the wonderful chapter of Gaopeng criminal lawyers with the concept and practical actions of "people are good at work", and hand over excellent answers in every case we personally handle!


(This article is translated by software translator for reference only.)