Our reporter Zhang Yuan - A former employee, claiming to possess compromising photos of senior company executives, attempted to extort 300,000 yuan from the chairman of UFIDA Software Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as UFIDA).
Yesterday, Qiao Long was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for extortion.
Threatening Suicide Attack on UFIDA Chairman
On March 9th, UFIDA received a courier package specifically addressed for the company chairman's signature. The package claimed that some children in impoverished areas of Guizhou urgently needed attention, requesting donations from the company under the name of the "Chinese Internet Mutual Assistance Love Foundation." In addition, the package contained photos of the company’s executives and some unrelated pornographic images.
On May 24th, UFIDA received another courier. Among the items was a letter titled "The Book of Destruction," demanding a transfer of 300,000 yuan.
"The Book of Destruction" stated that if no money was received by May 26th, the sender would disclose personnel information and gift-giving lists on major websites to relevant departments. Simultaneously, there would be assassination attempts and suicide attacks targeting the chairman of UFIDA, his family, employees, along with plans to bomb the software park where the company is located.
On the afternoon of May 26th, Qiao Long, aged 33, was apprehended by the police after withdrawing cash from an ATM near an amusement park in Shijingshan District.
Job Rejection Led to Sending Executives' Compromising Photos
Qiao Long stated that after graduating with a postgraduate degree, he worked at UFIDA from September 2002 to January 2007. He led a sales team but frequently clashed with another colleague due to intense competition, which eventually led to his resignation. After losing about one million yuan in stock trading and facing a divorce from his wife, he decided to return to UFIDA for employment. However, during the interview, the examiner turned out to be the same colleague with whom he had conflicts before, leading him to conceive the idea of sending the courier and attempting extortion.
During the trial, Qiao Long mentioned that as a former employee of UFIDA, he obtained photos of senior executives dining abroad through the internal computer system's "information sharing" function. He bundled these photos with pornographic images, falsely claiming to possess compromising photos of the executives, and sent the courier as what he called a "friendly warning."
Haidian Court ruled that defendant Qiao Long, with the intention of illegal possession, coerced others into handing over property through threats, involving a significant amount, constituting the crime of extortion. However, considering that Qiao Long truthfully confessed to the basic facts of his crime and that most of the extorted funds had not yet been transferred to his designated account, while the amounts already transferred were frozen, resulting in recoverable economic losses, the court mitigated his sentence to four and a half years in prison.
■ Follow-up
Judge: The Defendant Had Malicious Intent
The judge handling Qiao Long's case of extortion remarked that highly educated individuals committing crimes are currently a significant point of focus among criminal subjects. Driven merely by setbacks in his career, Qiao Long successively engaged in a series of extortion behaviors, such as fabricating a love foundation, leaking company personnel information, and even planning a suicide attack, each more malicious than the last, clearly demonstrating his malicious intent.
The judge further commented that Qiao Long's case reflects how his behavior became distorted under the strong drive of greed and revenge psychology. As part of the high-educated social elite, if one adheres to the belief that "the greater the power, the greater the responsibility," it should be premised on proper legal and monetary concepts, using them to restrain one's words and actions. If one lacks basic moral values and rule awareness, willing to do anything for their own benefit, it isn't just an issue affecting one's future prospects but rather the problem of "the greater the power, the greater the harm."