More needs to be done. Ordinary employees of an e-commerce platform in Hangzhou took more than 92 million in bribes a year! Anti-corruption in private enterprises
According to CCTV News, not long ago, the police in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province detected an internal corruption case in a private enterprise, which attracted widespread attention. Reports show that Wang, a basic operator of an e-commerce platform in Hangzhou, accepted more than 92 million yuan in bribes from merchants in just one year.
Recently, in order to deal with internal corruption issues, many private companies have issued anti-fraud notices, and many people have been transferred to judicial authorities for suspected crimes. However, after being shocked, efforts still need to be made to treat both the symptoms and the root causes.
Ordinary employees of e-commerce platforms accept more than 92 million yuan in bribes a year
Reports show that Wang is responsible for the preliminary review of the official furniture flagship store of this e-commerce platform. He discovered the so-called "business opportunity" and quickly turned the approval into a business. He violated regulations on approval and collected money wantonly. In just one year, Wang and others jointly accepted more than 130 million yuan in bribes, of which his own bribe amount was more than 92 million yuan. It was not until the reporting channel set up by this e-commerce platform received an anonymous reporting letter that the tip of the iceberg of this black and gray industrial chain was revealed.
Currently, Wang is being prosecuted in accordance with the law on suspicion of accepting bribes by non-state personnel, and the case is under trial. At the same time, with the detection of the case, the e-commerce platform was also deeply touched. They did not expect that a grassroots operator could accept so many bribes.
It is understood that in addition to the investment approval process, procurement and investment links are also areas where corruption within private enterprises is high and frequent. Public reports show that in December last year, the Beijing police detected an internal corruption case at a short video platform company. The employee involved, Lu, was hunted by suppliers and not only opened the door for suppliers in the procurement process, but also used his position to Convenience provided a large amount of investment to the other party, causing serious losses to the short video platform company. At present, the criminal suspect Lu has been criminally detained by the police on suspicion of accepting bribes by non-state staff.
Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News noted that in recent years, private enterprises, including Internet companies, are taking drastic measures to clean up internal corruption. Many well-known Internet companies have also established internal anti-corruption departments to strictly investigate corruption within the company. For example, Tencent has established an "Anti-Fraud Investigation Department", Baidu has established a "Professional Ethics Committee", Alibaba has established an "Integrity and Compliance Department", ByteDance has established a "Corporate Discipline and Professional Ethics Committee", Meituan has established a "Sunshine Committee", etc.
Many Internet companies have also publicly exposed multiple cases of internal corruption. For example, in February this year, Tencent Group released an anti-fraud work report for 2023, which showed that throughout last year, Tencent’s anti-fraud investigation department discovered and investigated more than 70 cases involving “Tencent high-voltage lines”, and nearly 20 people were transferred to the public security organs for suspected crimes. .
In March this year, Douyin Group issued an anti-fraud notice for 2023. A total of 23 people were transferred to judicial authorities for suspected illegal crimes. ByteDance's Corporate Discipline and Professional Ethics Committee also reported 61 cases of employee violations of laws and disciplines last month. All employees involved were fired, and four of them were suspected of committing criminal offences.
Because they hold a large number of contacts, customers and other resources, some executives and employees who violate professional ethics and dishonest promises may be hired by other large companies even if they are fired from their original companies. In response to this situation, a number of private enterprises have jointly established the Sunshine Integrity Alliance and the Enterprise Anti-Fraud Alliance. Liberation Daily·Shangguan News noticed that in the aforementioned ByteDance notification, the four people suspected of committing criminal offenses have all been arrested by the Sunshine Integrity Alliance and the Enterprise Anti-Fraud Alliance.
Jiefang Daily·Shangguan News noted that the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court have made arrangements to punish corruption in private enterprises in accordance with the law.
On July 31 last year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Opinions on Punishing and Preventing Crimes Infringed upon the Legitimate Rights and Interests of Private Enterprises by Insiders of Private Enterprises in accordance with the Law, and Creating a Good Legal Environment for the Development of the Private Economy", which mentioned that it is difficult to file and investigate crimes committed by insiders of private enterprises. It is difficult and difficult to prevent. The Supreme People's Procuratorate will punish crimes committed by insiders of private enterprises that affect the healthy development of private enterprises in accordance with the law. In accordance with the law, the punishment for corruption such as job embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, and bribery committed by internal personnel of private enterprises shall be intensified. Combined with case handling, promote the governance of the source of corruption in private enterprises.
In October last year, the Supreme People's Court held a press conference and released the "Guiding Opinions of the Supreme People's Court on Optimizing the Rule of Law Environment to Promote the Development and Growth of the Private Economy" and proposed that it will study and formulate judicial interpretations to increase the number of employees of private enterprises who embezzle their positions and misappropriate funds in accordance with the law. , bribery, bribery, breach of trust and other corrupt behaviors, and increase efforts to recover stolen goods and recover losses.
In addition, this year's work report of the Supreme People's Court mentioned that last year, courts at all levels across the country strongly supported private enterprises in fighting corruption and "fighting insiders", and concluded 6,779 cases of bribery and job embezzlement by non-state staff involving 8,124 people.
Whether it is building a new "close" and "clean" political and business relationship, or forming an effective mechanism that dares not, cannot, or does not want to corrupt, large private enterprises are an indispensable and important force. The ongoing high-profile anti-corruption campaign by private enterprises, including Internet companies, has had a certain deterrent effect. However, after being deterred, efforts still need to be made to address both the symptoms and root causes.
At present, regarding the crime of accepting bribes by non-state personnel, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 163 of my country’s Criminal Law clearly stipulate that employees of companies, enterprises or other units take advantage of their positions to solicit property from others or illegally accept If the amount is relatively large and the property of others is used to seek benefits for others, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; if the amount is huge, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and the property may be confiscated. At the same time, if staff of a company, enterprise or other unit take advantage of their position to violate state regulations in their economic dealings and accept kickbacks and handling fees in various names, which are owned by individuals, they shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
However, the prerequisite for the conviction of non-state personnel for accepting bribes mainly relies on the company where the criminal suspect works to proactively report the crime. If some companies, considering the social impact, are unwilling to report the case or simply fire the people involved after they “spit out” the stolen money, it will be difficult for the judicial authorities to proactively intervene.
In addition, some commonalities can also be found by analyzing corruption cases within private enterprises in recent years. Including, the criminal subjects are often the middle and senior management of the enterprise, who have the management power given by the enterprise, and understand the loopholes and deficiencies in all aspects of the business; criminal behavior has a certain degree of concealment, and often takes advantage of position advantages and information asymmetry to cover up their crimes. behavior, it is difficult for outsiders to detect it.
How to overcome the difficulty of detecting corruption in private enterprises? How to control the source of corruption in private enterprises? How can private enterprises establish and improve internal corruption prevention and governance mechanisms? These are also problems that need to be solved.
