Li Shu’s team | Beijing YunTing Law Firm
Practice area: Criminal defense. Proceedings: Petition for retrial.
1. Background
The original judgment convicted the client of illegally absorbing public deposits and imposed a four-year prison sentence. The client challenged the final judgment and instructed Li Shu’s team to pursue a petition for retrial.
2. The client’s objective
The client sought to initiate a retrial and obtain an acquittal. This was the objective of the proceedings, rather than a final judicial outcome already achieved.
3. Challenges
The final judgment had already been enforced. At the petition stage, the team needed to identify specific and adequately supported objections to the evidence and legal reasoning underlying the conviction and sentence.
4. Strategy
The team reviewed the relationships between 65 lenders, the client and the companies involved, including family and friendship ties, employment and business partnerships. It organized evidence concerning the persons approached for funding, the methods of solicitation and the use of the funds. The team argued that the funds were raised from identified persons, were not solicited through public promotion and were used for the company’s business operations. On that basis, it challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and the application of law in the original judgment, while helping the client submit new evidence.
5. Procedural status
The Sichuan High People’s Court ordered a retrial before a newly constituted panel of an intermediate people’s court. As confirmed by Li Shu for this update, no retrial judgment has yet been issued. The retrial order is a procedural development; it should not be described as a decision overturning the original judgment or acquitting the client.
6. Significance
The case illustrates a petition strategy focused on key evidence, funding transactions and the elements of the alleged offense. Any assessment of the final substantive outcome must await the subsequent judicial decision.
Author: Li Shu, founding partner of Beijing YunTing Law Firm. Practice areas: Commercial disputes, corporate governance and shareholder litigation, finance and enforcement, and criminal defense.