"It's closing." This is the last microblog sent by @ Xu Xiaofeng in Shanghai, a financial blogger with more than 4 million fans. The time is fixed on July 7, 2021 Recently, the reporter of the rule of law daily learned from the people's Procuratorate of Pudong New Area of Shanghai that Xu Xiaofeng has been prosecuted by the procuratorial organ for committing the crime of false advertising, helping the criminal activities of network information and illegal business
When the investigation organ submitted for approval of the arrest, it only found out that Xu Xiaofeng was suspected of the crime of illegal business operation by using the influence of bloggers to publicize and promote on the microblog public platform, solicit customers' investment and collect commissions, knowing that an OTC sub warehouse system carried out illegal futures trading in violation of the national financial management regulations. After the procuratorial organ intervened, it found that Xu Xiaofeng's crimes were far more than these
Yu Lin, the procurator of Pudong new area procuratorate, was interviewed by reporters to uncover the "business experience" behind the bright identity of the financial v.
Illegal business involved in the case
On the 23rd day after Xu Xiaofeng's last microblog was sent out, Shanghai Public Security Bureau Pudong branch detained Xu Xiaofeng on suspicion of illegal business.
The police verified that the "SSE 50ETF" and "SSE ETF option" recommended by Xu Xiaofeng are illegal futures trading platforms, which are essentially established by Chen Ming (pseudonym) and others without authorization through the agent warehouse software.
In other words, Chen Ming and others used the influence of big V such as Xu Xiaofeng to attract fans to open accounts and trade in the above warehouse separation software. They accepted the entrustment of customers to place orders and settle funds by themselves, thus forming a "option trading scenario" with warehouse separation software as the core.
"This trading software is a sub warehouse software, which must be informal, because a similar sub warehouse system has been punished by the CSRC before." Xu Xiaofeng confessed. Xu Xiaofeng is a financial blogger who holds a private equity fund manager license and has corresponding financial knowledge. He knows that using the off-site sub warehouse system violates the national financial management regulations, but he still does not hesitate to "wave a knife" to fans and cut "leeks" for personal interests.
It is reported that Xu Xiaofeng charges a commission of about 20 yuan per order. In order to earn commission, Xu Xiaofeng also asked his team's employees to promote this product in the live broadcast room, and solicited customers to invest and participate in futures and options trading through his customer service personnel. After audit, Xu Xiaofeng involved 12 agency accounts, involving more than 16 million yuan, and his personal illegal income alone was as high as more than 2.5 million yuan.
This is not Xu Xiaofeng's only "business experience". After his arrest, a large number of investors reported to the procuratorial organs that in addition to over-the-counter options, Xu Xiaofeng also published investment and stock recommendation advertisements on Weibo for many times, and provided links to guide investors to add their recommended social accounts for investment. Some fans listened to the publicity and added social accounts for investment. They found that they were cheated. After reporting the situation to Xu Xiaofeng, he ignored it and continued to publish the same advertisements.
"If Xu Xiaofeng knows that his fans have been cheated by his advertisements and continues to publish them, he is suspected of helping information network criminal activities and may also constitute the crime of false advertising." The prosecutor told reporters, "both crimes involve advertising, but the main difference is that the crime of helping information network criminal activities is to provide advertising promotion for others knowing that they use the information network to commit crimes. The crime of false advertising is that advertisers, advertising operators and advertising publishers use advertising to make false publicity for goods or services in violation of national regulations."
Comprehensively review and sort out the evidence chain
"I'm just an ordinary person without technical background. I just forward the content edited by the intermediary, and I can't judge the specific object of the link at all." "I haven't verified the advertising content myself, and I don't know it's a fraud advertisement"... From Xu Xiaofeng's mouth, the prosecutor heard only an excuse.
Faced with the suspect's categorical denial, the prosecutor did not give up. Yulin and her assistant guided the investigation authorities to collect objective evidence, retrieved all financial advertising lists and wechat chat records released by xuxiaofeng from 2019 to 2021, visited investors, and retrieved the daily transactions of banks, Alipay and wechat.
Through the retrieved advertising records, the procuratorial organ sorted out that Xu Xiaofeng had issued 60 financial advertisements. After the domain name was restored by short link, the principle of "the link of the same server in a continuous period of time is the same advertisement" was recognized, and one advertisement suspected of telecom network fraud (47 times) and three contents suspected of false advertisements (13 times) were confirmed.
"We also retrieved and recovered Xu Xiaofeng's relevant chat records according to law and found out his communication with advertising agencies. In addition, he was banned by the microblog platform for many times for publishing financial advertisements in violation of regulations. After receiving the information that fans were cheated, he not only didn't get off the shelves, but also used the so-called reminder method to 'exempt' and continue to publish advertisements with the same links, which is enough to determine that he knew that the advertisements he published were suspected of telecommunications fraud , and there is malicious evasion of the law. " Yu Lin said.
Finally, through the above evidence, the procuratorial organ determined that Xu Xiaofeng subjectively knew that he was publishing fraudulent advertisements, but he still repeatedly published illegal advertisements for high advertising commissions, and his behavior constituted the crime of helping information network criminal activities.
In this "business classic", Xu Xiaofeng received money to provide advertising support for fraud crimes and obtained rich returns. Each advertisement increased from 20000 or 30000 yuan to 50000 yuan at the beginning. He illegally made 390000 yuan from an advertisement identified as online fraud alone.
Xu Xiaofeng initially claimed ignorance of the other three advertisements involving false stock recommendation.
"Then, why do you claim in the advertisement that these accounts are your 'old friends' and' good friends' Under the persistent questioning of the prosecutor, Xu Xiaofeng admitted that he published the advertisement to earn advertising fees. As for the content, he did not verify the authenticity, and the so-called old friends and stock speculators did not exist... Therefore, Xu Xiaofeng illegally obtained more than 190000 yuan of advertising fees.
After repeatedly interrogating and fixing the above evidence, the prosecutor contacted the advertising department of the market supervision and Administration Bureau to make a specific study and judgment on the contents of the three financial advertisements released by Xu Xiaofeng, so as to determine that without verifying the authenticity of the link, he fabricated the identity and ability of the service provider, induced others to have a wrong understanding of the stock recommendation ability, trading ability and credibility of the advertisement publisher, and the illegal income reached more than 100000 yuan, Constitute the crime of false advertising.
Strengthen supervision and prevent similar cases
After sorting out many evidences, the procuratorial organ determined according to the facts of the crime that Xu Xiaofeng constituted the crime of illegal business operation, with an illegal profit of more than 2.5 million yuan; Helping the crime of information network crime, making illegal profits of more than 390000 yuan; For the crime of false advertising, he made illegal profits of more than 190000 yuan.
Facing the perfect evidence system, Xu Xiaofeng from initially not pleading guilty to confessing the facts of the crime, and finally signed a voluntary plea agreement.
While undertaking the case, the prosecutor also paid attention to the prevention of such crimes.
"While intoxicated with the pursuit of fans, big V and other public figures must always remind themselves of their social responsibilities as public figures, be in awe of the law, and take the responsibility of reviewing the goods or services they want to endorse and promote, which is not only responsible for fans, but also for their own protection." The prosecutor said.
With the rise of the network economy, more and more bloggers and online celebrities advertise on their accounts or "bring goods" in other ways, which leads to the damage of fans' rights and interests from time to time.
In this regard, the prosecutor reminded that some anchors and financial big V can not "send links with money" without verification, or promote them, especially advertising for financial products. Financial advertising is an important channel for financial consumers to understand financial information and products. Criminals use self media traffic to package and publicize illegal and criminal activities, causing huge losses to people's property, disrupting financial management order and affecting social stability. If the circumstances are serious, they shall bear criminal responsibility according to law.
For the public platform, the procuratorial organ suggested that although the platform economy is a flow economy, the network is not an illegal place. The network platform should undertake the obligation of information network supervision, do a good job in the compliance review of information release, and should not neglect the review and supervision in order to activate the flow, which will become the breeding ground for violations and crimes. Otherwise, it should also bear the corresponding legal responsibility.