Chapter 40 Chapter Thirty-Eight

The root of bribery lies in the bribe-giving behavior of the briber, and the crime of offering bribes and accepting bribes should be punished equally, so as to eliminate the phenomenon of accepting bribes from the root. On the afternoon of October 10, 2009, Zhou Jiugeng, the former director of the Jiangning District Real Estate Management Bureau in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, who was known as the "best real estate director in history", was sentenced to 11 years in prison and confiscated property by the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court for accepting bribes. RMB 1.2 million. The stolen money obtained from bribery will be recovered and handed over to the state treasury.

So, since Zhou Jiugeng was imprisoned for taking bribes, is the briber in this case also charged?It is understood that none of the bribers in this case have been charged on the grounds "because they did not have an illegal purpose". The reporter's investigation found that in the context of the increasingly severe anti-corruption struggle in our country, legal sanctions against bribers are as important as punishments for bribe recipients.But in actual operation, many places focus on cracking down on bribery crimes, and those who give bribes can always get away with it. The interviewed experts believe that if there is bribery, there must be bribery, and the indulgence of bribers shows that there are serious deviations in the anti-corruption work.At present, most of the crimes of giving and accepting bribes are the active bribery of the briber. In this sense, the root of bribery lies in the briber's bribery. The crime of offering bribes and the crime of accepting bribes should be given the same punishment, and the phenomenon of accepting bribes should be eliminated from the root. .

In recent years, the crime of bribery in my country has gradually penetrated from the past economic hotspot areas such as production and operation, construction engineering, financial securities, commodity circulation, and real estate to various fields and industries such as medicine and health, culture and education. "In the past, bribers simply pursued economic interests, but now they have expanded to running for officials to buy officials to pursue power, bribing judicial officials and administrative law enforcement officials in order to evade legal investigation, and bribery activities to solicit votes." Peking University School of Government and Management Doctoral Supervisor Professor Li Chengyan pointed out in an interview with reporters.

The reporter's investigation found that the identity of the bribers has also undergone some subtle changes, from the original business operators, individual owners, etc., to state employees, and even some powerful capital groups have bribed government officials in order to influence legislation, justice and policies formulate and ultimately serve their own special interests. Although the crime of bribery in our country has increased unabated, those who give bribes rarely get the punishment they deserve.A few days ago, in response to the collective corruption case of the leading group of the Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee in Hunan Province, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued a circular to the whole country, pointing out that it requires more punishment for bribery crimes.This shows that the central government is focusing on solving the outstanding problem in the anti-corruption work-excessive indulgence of bribers.

It is understood that the Changsha City Intermediate Court found that Zeng Jinchun had accepted more than 30 million yuan in bribes in the death sentence of Zeng Jinchun, the former Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of Chenzhou City.Among all the criminal facts, the power-money transaction between Zeng Jinchun and local businessman Huang is eye-catching.The verdict found that from 2001 to 2007, Huang bribed Zeng Jinchun 16 times, totaling 2.448 million yuan, in order to obtain a large amount of illegal benefits.In Zeng Jinchun's corruption case, Huang was also summoned three times by relevant departments and released three times, but finally nothing happened.

In fact, there are not a few bribers like Huang who have not been punished by law. On July 15, 2009, Chen Tonghai, the former general manager of Sinopec, accepted 195 million yuan in bribes and was sentenced to death by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court with a two-year reprieve, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property.In the case of Chen Tonghai, the five bribers were all natural persons.Although some of the bribers had corporate or institutional backgrounds, they were all identified in their own names, and no one was prosecuted for bribery.Instead, all five appeared in the case as witnesses.

A set of statistics published by the Supreme People's Procuratorate shows that from January to June 2009, procuratorial organs across the country filed and investigated 6,277 commercial bribery cases involving 6,842 people, involving a total amount of more than 918 million yuan.Among them, there were 4,849 suspected bribery crimes, accounting for 77.25% of the total number of cases filed; 1,197 bribery crimes, accounting for 19.07%. From a logical point of view, if there is bribery, there must be bribery. However, in this group of dual crimes, the investigation and punishment rates of bribery crimes and bribery crimes appear to be very different.

What is "bribery crime"? The "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" clearly stipulates: "In order to seek illegitimate benefits, giving property to state functionaries is a crime of bribery." However, the reporter's investigation found that in our country's laws, the relevant provisions are basically declarative provisions, and in specific judicial practice, there are very few actual cases.Among the corresponding regulations on the crime of offering bribes, some even reflect the obvious feature of "emphasizing accepting bribes and despising offering bribes".

"According to the provisions of our country's laws, some bribers may not be held criminally responsible." Du Liyuan, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongsheng Law Firm, told reporters, "Individuals should file a case for bribes of more than 10,000 yuan to state employees, and units should file a case against the state. Employees who offer bribes of more than 200,000 yuan should be put on file. If the amount of bribes is lower than this standard, and there are no other statutory circumstances, it generally does not constitute a crime of bribery or a crime of bribery by a unit; legitimate interests, it does not constitute the crime of offering bribes; if the briber voluntarily confesses his bribery before being prosecuted, the punishment may be mitigated or exempted from punishment.”

It is understood that some legal provisions are not clear, which directly leads to the difficulty of grasping judicial practice, so that some bribery cases cannot be finally determined.For example, according to the criminal law of our country, to constitute a crime of offering bribes must require the giving of "property" to state officials, but there are currently a large number of bribes with illegal material benefits—funding for bribe recipients to "investigate" and play, helping their children study abroad, Insurance, sexual bribery, etc., because there are no express provisions in the law, it is difficult to punish them as bribery crimes.

The misunderstanding of law enforcement officers on the level of understanding of bribery crimes has also caused many bribers to escape legal punishment.Many interviewed prosecutors believe that the bribe-taker has power and belongs to the strong party, which can create opportunities to extort bribes, and is generally active, while the bribe-givers are mostly passive.Under the dominance of this kind of consciousness, those who take bribes are often hated, while those who give bribes are treated with "leniency". The reporter’s investigation also found that, in order to get the bribe-taker investigated and prosecuted as soon as possible, some local procuratorial organs will also make a promise of “mitigated punishment” to the bribe-givers in exchange for the bribe-givers’ “confession” in order to obtain evidence of the bribe-taker’s crime from the bribe-givers. , Even let the briber appear in court as a witness to testify against the briber.Substituting the legal responsibility of the briber with the investigative method of the procuratorial organ is a blasphemy against the seriousness of the law. "As long as the briber actively cooperates to honestly explain the time, place, method and amount of the bribe, he will generally not file a case against him." A prosecutor in Beijing who did not want to be named told the reporter, "The testimony of the briber is of great importance to accusations of bribery crimes." It is very important, if the bribers are not given a way out, in order to protect themselves, they generally will not take the initiative to confess the bribery, which will bring great difficulty to the conclusion of the bribery case." During the interview, an insider reported to the reporter that some bribers cannot be punished, and there is another little-known reason, that is, some units handling the case are greedy for profit, and regard the briber's "release on bail" as a tool to collect money. It is found from interviews that in reality, most of the crimes of offering and accepting bribes are committed by the bribe-givers actively. Subjectively, they have greater malice and objectively obtain huge illegal benefits, which stimulates the bribe-takers’ awareness of accepting bribes. "Due to the excessive indulgence of bribers, the crime of bribery has caused more and more harm to social atmosphere and legal order in recent years." Li Chengyan said, "Indulging bribers will seriously damage the public's belief in the law—if the law is not rigid enough , then the so-called legal society may be empty talk.” "Unlimited leniency to bribers, although to a certain extent, is conducive to the cracking of cases, but in the long run, this practice is undoubtedly drinking poison to quench thirst." Professor Qi Shanhong, a doctoral supervisor at Nankai University, said in an interview with reporters, "Leniency bribery encourages bribery. The trend of bribery is prevalent, making bribery cases in a vicious circle. Bribery is prevalent, and the methods and methods are constantly changing, and bribery is bound to increase." The harm of bribery has attracted the attention of relevant departments. In March 1999, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate "Notice on Severely Investigating and Handling Serious Bribery Criminals While Handling Major Cases of Bribery-Accepting Crimes" requires that serious bribery criminals be punished while continuing to severely punish bribery criminals. It must be severely punished in accordance with the law and resolutely cracked down. In addition, from September 1, 2009, the "Supreme People's Procuratorate's Regulations on the Inquiry of Files of Bribery Crimes" came into effect.The new regulations cancel the restrictions on the scope of input and inquiry, and expand from the five fields of construction, finance, medicine and health, education, and government procurement to all fields. Bribery crime files, also known as bribery "blacklists", are files formed by procuratorial organs using computers to classify, store, and manage bribery crime information.By grasping the relevant information of bribery cases, we can prevent some factors that induce job crimes from entering the place of power operation. However, the reporter's investigation found that although these measures have certain effects, they have not been able to curb the spread of bribery in our country.In reality, there are more and more active bribers, and after sending officials into the abyss of crime, the bribers are often able to escape legal sanctions. "The anti-corruption strategy of lenient bribery may help punish the bribe-takers for a while, but it cannot cure the chronic corruption, because the willingness of the bribe-givers to bribe will not be reduced by the fall of the bribe-takers." Li Chengyan believes that "severely punishing bribes but leniently giving bribes , This kind of anti-corruption is no different from turning on the faucet to mop the floor. The punishment for bribery crimes should be increased, and bribery crimes should be curbed by curbing bribery crimes.” "Our country's current criminal law punishes bribery crimes too lightly, which has a lot to do with the economic environment when the criminal law was revised." Du Liyuan suggested, "The current economic situation has changed, and relevant legal regulations should also be adjusted accordingly, or supplementary regulations should be made. , to make it more perfect and operable. For example, the crime of offering bribes violates the normal activities of state organs and the integrity of state staff, regardless of whether the interests sought by the briber are legitimate or not, and does not affect its impact on criminal law. The protected social relationship constitutes an infringement. Therefore, the constitution of the crime of offering bribes does not need to limit the purpose of offering bribes. In addition, active bribery and bribery after asking for bribes should also be treated differently, and the amount of bribes and penalties constituted by crimes should be different according to the circumstances. regulations, which are convenient for operation and implementation in judicial practice.” At the same time, Du Liyuan also suggested that my country's current criminal law limits the scope of bribery to "property". Under the current severe and complicated new situation of bribery crimes, non-"property" bribes emerge in endlessly and are extremely harmful to society.Therefore, the scope of this provision should be expanded in order to more effectively combat the crime of bribery. In the interview, Qi Shanhong believed that the bribe-givers reporting bribe-takers are "tainted witnesses" and should be exempted to a limited extent.my country has joined the "United Nations Convention against Corruption", which has stricter regulations on bribery than our country's criminal law, and there is no restriction on "seeking illegitimate interests". According to experts, the "United Nations Convention against Corruption" imposes the same punishment on bribery and bribery, that is, the same evaluation is made on bribery and bribery.In foreign legislation, many bribery and bribery are equally punished.Such as the United States, the Philippines, Argentina, Spain, New Zealand, etc. Article 423 of the Spanish Penal Code stipulates: "Anyone who corrupts or attempts to corrupt authorities or public servants by means of gifts, gifts, promises or responses shall be punished the same as those who bribe civil servants, except that they will not be suspended from their duties." "Criminal punishment, economic sanctions and other means can be used to comprehensively crack down on bribery crimes." Yin Yungong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told reporters, "We should increase criminal punishments for bribers and increase economic sanctions to increase the risk of bribery." and cost, thereby providing a huge psychological deterrent to those who are ready to pay bribes."