What are the characteristics of new types of corruption, such as borrowing, investment, and entrusted wealth management? Look at this case
The Second Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has made "resolutely investigating and punishing new and hidden corruption" one of the key areas of anti-corruption work this year. Since the beginning of this year, disciplinary inspection and supervision organs at all levels have been closely monitoring the new manifestations and trends of corrupt behavior, and strictly supervising the enforcement of discipline and law. Recently, Jingyang District, Deyang City, Sichuan Province investigated and dealt with a case of using civil debt to transfer bribery.
Recently, the People's Court of Jingyang District, Deyang City, Sichuan Province held a court hearing to hear the case of Liu Jinfu, former deputy director of the local comprehensive administrative law enforcement bureau, accepting bribes and abusing power.
The reporter learned during the trial that Liu Jinfu's largest bribe of 200000 yuan was collected through the transfer of civil debt. Simply put, Liu Jinfu transferred the non-performing debt that could not be collected to his private boss.
Why is this situation recognized as bribery?
According to investigators, in 2015, Liu Jinfu, while serving as the deputy director of the local water bureau, illegally lent 300000 yuan to a private owner with business dealings, Liu, in his personal name, and agreed on corresponding interest returns. In 2017, Liu returned the principal of 20000 yuan to Liu Jinfu and paid a sum of interest.
Zhou Yangbin, a case handler from the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Jingyang District, Deyang City, Sichuan Province: Liu Jinfu felt that he was profitable. A few years later, because the Liu surname merchant's project may have been poorly managed and the interest could not be paid, Liu Jinfu realized it and wanted to recover the outstanding amount. But the businessman surnamed Liu has never had the money to redeem it.
One day in the second half of 2020, Liu Jinfu arranged for his private boss Liu and another private boss Chen, who had close contact with him and also had business cooperation with Liu, to join him in a tea house.
Personal boss Chen: Then he asked me how much money I owe Mr. Liu, and I said that Mr. Liu may have 70000 or 80000 yuan in machinery costs on my construction site. He said that Mr. Liu seems to still owe him 280000 yuan. Can I advance the payment to Mr. Liu first, and then he will repay him first? His money is in urgent need.
At that time, the so-called boss Liu had become a dishonest person. Although the private boss Chen was unwilling in his heart, under the pressure of Liu Jinfu, Chen still lent 280000 yuan.
Private boss Chen: After all, many of our businesses are also within his jurisdiction. At that time, Mr. Liu did not give me an IOU, and he never thought about getting it back or not coming back. The main thing was to handle this matter as soon as possible and not let him trouble me.
After investigation, Chen's 280000 yuan, of which 80000 yuan was paid to Mr. Liu as a mechanical usage fee, and the remaining 200000 yuan went into Liu Jinfu's pocket.
Judge Wang Yue of Jingyang District Court, Deyang City, Sichuan Province: The payment appears to be a transfer of debt from private lending, but in essence, it is Liu Jinfu's use of his position to indirectly transfer the non-performing debt to a bribe taker, possessing the nature of a disguised power money transaction. The 200000 yuan actually received by Liu Jinfu should be recognized as his bribery payment.
After trial and investigation, it was found that during his tenure as Deputy Director of the Local Water Bureau and Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, Liu Jinfu not only used his own power to illegally accept more than 700000 yuan in property from others, but also condoned and tacitly allowed illegal merchants to illegally mine sand and gravel in the river, resulting in significant losses of over 2 million yuan to national interests. He even formed an offensive and defensive alliance with bribe givers to resist review and investigation. In September 2022, Liu Jinfu was expelled from the party and held public office.
At present, Liu Jinfu has been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison for the crimes of bribery and abuse of power.
Bai Rubing, a case handler from the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Jingyang District, Deyang City, Sichuan Province: Liu Jinfu, as a law enforcement officer, knowingly violated the law, violated the law, and used his power as a business. Bribery and dereliction of duty intertwined, which also exposed the regulatory deficiencies in the operation of power by relevant units. We have also issued requirements for rectification to relevant units, requiring them to establish and improve corresponding systems.
Corruption methods are covert, diverse, and harmful, with a long incubation period
The use of debt transfer as a means of bribery can be said to be a manifestation of new and implicit corruption. From the cases investigated and dealt with by disciplinary inspection and supervision organs at all levels in recent years, it can be seen that the essence of new types of corruption and implicit corruption is still seeking personal gain through power, but often disguised as "legalization" and carried out covertly.
On September 3rd, Chen Renhua, former member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Jiangxi Construction Group, was expelled from the Party and held public office. The Jiangxi Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision pointed out in the "Double Opening" notice that Chen Renhua violated regulations by engaging in profit-making activities and lending to management service recipients to obtain large returns. Previously, Wu Cha, former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Baiyin City, Gansu Province, and Liu Xinlin, former deputy general manager of the Development and Investment Group of Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, were also pointed out to be involved in illegal lending to management service recipients for profit.
Collecting wealth under the guise of "borrowing", "investment", and "entrusted wealth management" is a manifestation of new and implicit corruption.
Song Wei, Deputy Director of Beijing Clean Governance Construction Research Base: It should be said that within the scope of legal provisions, if it is a normal private lending, investment and wealth management should be protected. But if one party involved in investment and lending is a leading cadre, and the other party is the management service object, the essence of this behavior has actually changed. In name, it may seem like borrowing money, but in reality, it is borrowing power, which means managing the service object with high returns as the cost, and then allowing the leading cadres to provide some degree of convenience through other means.
In addition, from the cases investigated and dealt with by disciplinary inspection and supervision organs at all levels, some party members and cadres use "shadow companies" to arrange relatives to act as "stage puppets" to collect and hold shares for profit. For example, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission once revealed that Wu Kaicheng, a former member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Hainan Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Planning, falsely invested in a certain company under the name of his younger brother Wu. From 2014 to 2018, Wu Kaicheng took advantage of his position to help this "shadow company" acquire mining rights worth over 30 million yuan for 3.48 million yuan by changing the transfer method and other means. In the second half of 2018, Wu Kaicheng arranged for Wu to sell the relevant mining rights, earning a profit of 20 million yuan. In April this year, Wu Kai was convicted of bribery and sentenced to 14 years and 6 months in prison.
Sun Dawei, Deputy Secretary General of the China Anti Corruption Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that the invisible manipulation of public power is an important feature of "shadow companies". Most shadow companies do not have the ability to operate independently or develop themselves, and rely on profit sharing to maintain their survival. The involved leading cadres often hide behind the scenes to manipulate operations, "tailor" biased policies, or privately leak insider information; Of course, there are also some leading cadres who directly intervene in decision-making and approval, or stand out for the "shadow company" in various occasions, allowing the "shadow company" to obtain projects, undertake business, and make money from it.
Some party members and cadres use "options" to monetize for profit, reach a tacit understanding with unscrupulous businessmen, and make verbal agreements and tacit agreements when handling matters. After leaving, leaving or retiring, they complete the transfer of benefits through investment, stock ownership, and employment rewards, which is commonly known as "power corruption". Behind the "escape style resignation" often lies option trading. For example, Zhang Huayu, former Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of China Everbright Bank Co., Ltd., was pointed out that during his tenure, he sought benefits for the relevant enterprises, resigned before retirement, and after resigning, he received high salaries in enterprises related to his original position. This is a typical example of "early nest building" and "escape style resignation" corruption, a typical example of the interconnection between power and capital, and a crazy pursuit of profit. It is also a typical example of wind and corruption, wind corruption, and willingness to be surrounded. In August of this year, Zhang Huayu was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison for the crimes of bribery and bribery through the use of influence.
Sun Dawei, Deputy Secretary General of the China Anti Corruption Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: The characteristic of option corruption is the time difference between profit-making behavior and receiving benefits. In fact, some corrupt elements seek power and rent by extending the time and space of corrupt transactions in order to evade investigation and punishment. Option corruption has strong concealment and a longer incubation period. Compared with conventional corruption cases, it is more difficult, time-consuming, and costly to investigate and deal with option corruption. It is also a typical manifestation of implicit corruption at present.
Focusing on the new characteristics of corruption, expanding channels, and precise supervision
What are the current difficulties in supervision regarding new and implicit corruption, and how should we address them?
Tang Xin, Director of the Case Supervision and Management Office of the Sichuan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision: From our practice, although new types of corruption and implicit corruption are still essentially rent-seeking and seeking personal gain through power, they are different from traditional corruption characteristics such as taking money to do things, showing non direct characteristics. In terms of time, we do not seek immediate realization of power, but rather pursue option effects; In terms of space, power rent-seeking is not a point-to-point, one-on-one direct occurrence, but rather involves a large number of intermediaries and intermediaries; In terms of manifestations, such corrupt behavior often uses the "legal facade" to conceal the essence of illegality, and the corrupt methods are covertly mutated, refurbished and upgraded, with increasingly diverse forms.
Difficulties in discovery, evidence collection, and characterization are the current challenges in the supervision process of new and implicit corruption.
In response to this, the disciplinary inspection and supervision organs have continuously strengthened their daily supervision, focusing on key areas such as state-owned enterprises and finance where power is concentrated, capital is intensive, and resources are abundant. They have strengthened their supervision, discipline, and law enforcement, closely monitoring the "top leaders", and seriously investigating and punishing the problem of leaders' spouses, children, their spouses, and other relatives and staff members using their influence to seek personal gain and corruption; On the other hand, continuously expanding channels for discovering problem clues, deepening cooperation with relevant departments such as banks, taxation, and auditing, combined with the characteristics of new and hidden corruption, using big data analysis and other technological means to extract cocoons from various types of big data, improving the penetration of supervision, discipline, and law enforcement, uncovering hidden power and money trading problems, and cutting off the chain of interest transmission.
Deng Zengwang, Director of the Case Supervision and Management Office of the Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervision Commission of Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, said that in the governance of new and hidden corruption, another important aspect is to adhere to the joint investigation of bribery and bribery, take effective measures, and break the offensive and defensive alliance formed by bribery and bribery. Continuously improving the joint punishment mechanism for bribe givers, increasing the cost of bribery, achieving the goal of deterring the occurrence of bribery, and promoting the resolution of bribery issues.
In addition, the disciplinary inspection and supervision organs also adhere to using cases to promote reform, strengthen warning and deterrence, thoroughly investigate the root causes of corruption, promote the closure of institutional loopholes, and reduce the space for rent-seeking power.
Song Wei, Deputy Director of the Beijing Clean Governance Construction Research Base: In the process of investigating new and hidden corruption, disciplinary inspection and supervision cadres should also fully recognize the new situation and new situations, continuously learn knowledge in areas such as economics, statistics, and big data, and innovate methods and methods to improve their ability to identify problems and investigate cases, and promote the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party to develop in depth.
