Comic Strip
Southern Daily News (Reporter/Ma Xisheng, Correspondent/Liao Wei): Former deputy director of Shilong Town Baihua North Residents' Committee, Lin Mouhua, was addicted to gambling on the underground六合彩 and accumulated huge debts. She used her position as a deputy director of the residents' committee to falsely claim that she could arrange for household registration, defrauding over 100 ten thousand yuan from 35 households of outsiders. Yesterday, it was learned that the trial of this fraud case has been concluded in the first instance. The former female deputy director was sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined 20,000 RMB. As of the time of this report, Lin Mouhua has not yet clearly stated whether she will appeal.
Gambling Addiction: Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul Owes Huge Debts
Lin Mouhua was only 29 years old when she went to jail. After graduating from university in 2003, she took over her mother's position and entered the Baihua North Residents' Committee of Shilong Town, Dongguan. After working for six years, her position was promoted to deputy director in charge of sanitation. To outsiders, Lin Mouhua had a good job and a decent family background. But since she became addicted to lottery gambling a few years ago, she lost all interest in work and often asked for leave or skipped work. She was either gambling or "raising money" to pay off her debts.
The court found that Lin Mouhua admitted that she had lost over 1 million yuan due to gambling. In order to pay off her gambling debts, she borrowed money from four or five high-interest lenders, essentially borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. A large portion of the borrowed money was used again for gambling. Last October, she borrowed 300,000 yuan from Su Mouqi, with daily interest of 3,000 yuan.
Fraud: Can Arrange Household Registration and Solve Over-quota Births
In 2007, Lin Mouhua, driven by gambling debts and high-interest loans, came up with the idea of arranging household registration. However, her work had nothing to do with household registration processing, but she brazenly claimed under the banner of being the deputy director of the local residents' committee that she had connections "up above" and could "get everything done." She defrauded more than 30 local residents by claiming she could help them process local household registration and resolve over-quota birth issues, collecting over 1 million yuan in "processing fees."
Many victims reported that Lin Mouhua seemed to know who in the community wanted to arrange household registration and even had their information. As long as she said she was the deputy director of the residents' committee and could inexpensively help people settle household registration issues for just two or three ten thousand yuan, many believed her.
Lin Mouhua's first "business" client was Mr. Zhang, in 2007. In November of that year, Lin Mouhua told Mr. Zhang that she might be able to handle his child's household registration, with the fee payable in two stages. Mr. Zhang gave her 10,000 yuan in November and added another 15,000 yuan in March 2008. However, the household registration was never successfully arranged. In his testimony, Mr. Zhang said that he trusted Lin Mouhua because he indeed had friends who successfully settled their household registration through one of Lin Mouhua's relatives, so he gave her the money.
In early 2009, another victim, Huang Mou, entrusted Lin Mouhua with an errand and gave her 30,000 yuan, but the household registration was delayed without progress. During this period, Huang Mou also urged her, and Lin Mouhua would either say she was following the steps to process it or that she was lobbying a certain leader. She even intentionally misplaced part of the materials they submitted, using incomplete materials as an excuse to make them go back and resubmit, thereby achieving the purpose of delaying time.
In November 2009, citizens began visiting the residents' committee and reporting to the police station.
Court findings revealed that a total of 35 victims were defrauded, involving an amount of 1,017,000 yuan, and none of the stolen funds or items were recovered.
Case within a Case: High-interest Lenders Confine Her
Just a few days before the police were about to investigate Lin Mouhua, one of her major creditors, Su Mouqi, heard the news and feared that if something happened to her, he wouldn't get his money back, so he took action to force her to repay the debt.
Su Mouqi first instructed his subordinates to harass and intimidate Lin's family into repaying over 250,000 yuan. On November 19th, in order to recover the remaining loan, Su Mouqi and others took Lin Mouhua to a hotel in Shiwan Town, Boluo County, and confined her for 6 days. Finally, Lin Mouhua lied that someone was coming to give her money to repay her debt, escaped, and fled to Luofu Mountain.
After Lin Mouhua fled, Su Mouqi's subordinates poured a bucket of red paint onto her mother's house, and her sister's shop was also splashed with paint.
Verdict: Fraud Conviction Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison
The court held that the defendant Lin Mouhua disregarded national law, with the intention of illegal possession, used fabricated facts or concealed the truth to defraud others of their property, in an especially large amount, constituting the crime of fraud, which should be punished according to law. The prosecution charged that the facts of Lin Mouhua committing fraud were clear, and the evidence was solid and sufficient. Considering Lin Mouhua's good attitude of confessing during the trial, she was given a lighter punishment at the court's discretion. According to Article 266, 53, and 64 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, Lin Mouhua was convicted of fraud, sentenced to 13 years in prison, and fined 20,000 yuan.