Recently, the smuggling suspect Peng who led a shabby life and was almost mentally collapsed surrendered to the public security organ. Thus, the nearly decade-long chase by the Chancheng Anti-smuggling Bureau of Guangzhou Customs has finally come to an end.
Let's rewind back to June 2002.
Guangzhou Customs investigation found that Foshan Junyou Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. was suspected of smuggling imported chewing gum into China by underreporting price, with huge quantity involved and complicated case circumstances.
The Chancheng Anti-smuggling Bureau immediately launched an investigation and found that the legal representative Peng and two other shareholders of the company imported chewing gum from South Korea in the name of Foshan Junyou Economic & Trade Co., Ltd. and Foshan Junyou Ocean Trading Co., Ltd. between June 1999 and June 2002. In order to gain more profits, they established two shell companies in Hong Kong as transfer stations for fake bills of exchange, shipping the imported chewing gum to Hong Kong first and then re-importing them into mainland China. Under the name of these two Hong Kong companies, they falsely reported the actual price of HK$20 per kilogram as HK$5 or HK$7 per kilogram, and made fake invoices, packing lists and other customs declaration documents, which were provided to the agents for low-price import declaration to evade taxes and duties. They then transferred the payment overseas through bank transfers and underground banks. Among them, Peng and the two shareholders distributed the profits at a ratio of 4:3:3. After investigation, it was found that the case value was about RMB 140 million yuan, involving suspected tax evasion of more than RMB 24 million yuan. This case became one of the top ten criminal cases prosecuted by the People's Procuratorate of Foshan City that year.
In 2003, the Intermediate People's Court of Foshan City sentenced this case, and the two shareholders were finally sentenced to seven years in prison. However, after the incident, Peng knew he could not escape his responsibilities and had been on the run since June 2002.
Even though the court had already made a verdict on the case, the fact that Peng had not yet turned himself in meant that the case was not over.
After the case broke out in June 2002, the anti-smuggling personnel of the customs never stopped chasing him, and this persistence lasted for nearly ten years.
"On June 11, 2002, he was going to Shanghai on business and said he would be home the next day, but once he left, he never came back..." Peng's 78-year-old mother remembered vividly because the next day was exactly the day when the anti-smuggling department initiated the investigation, and Peng fled without saying goodbye to his family. Since then, Peng changed his name and went into hiding, wandering around. Without any property on him, he lived a homeless and fearful life of fugitive.
One year, two years... Eight years passed.
The Criminal Law Amendment (VIII) passed in February this year abolished the death penalty provision for the crime of smuggling ordinary goods and items. Peng, who always thought he would be sentenced to death, only dared to contact his family after learning this information. This situation was soon known by the anti-smuggling department of the customs, and the anti-smuggling department promptly conducted legal policy publicity to Peng's family, urging his family to persuade Peng to surrender as soon as possible.
On March 16, 2011, Peng voluntarily surrendered to the public security organ accompanied by his mother.
"If I had known this would happen, why didn't I think twice back then..." This was the most frequently expressed regret by Peng after his surrender. Not long after Peng fled, his wife remarried with their children, and the originally happy family no longer existed. Born in 1968, Peng should have been at the peak of his career and successful, but now Peng is just a spiritless and dispirited little old man. Peng used to be a general manager of a company with a wealthy family; now, Peng is divorced, destitute, and only his nearly eighty-year-old, frail and sick mother cares about him all the time. Peng regrets the "momentary lapse" of his original decision, which caused today's heavy price. (Reported by Cai Yanhong)