Dehe Case | How Does Await-Capture Self-Surrender Affect Sentencing? A Successful Defense in a Case of Fraudulently Issuing Value-Added Tax Special Invoices
In economic crime cases, "jumping the amount level" often indicates an increase in the legal penalty. Self-reporting, as the core legal mitigating or reducing factor, is precisely the key to breaking through the sentencing dilemma. Recently, the senior partner team of Chen Shilei, a lawyer from the Shanghai office of DHHT Law Firm, successfully handled a case of falsely issuing value-added tax special invoices. The涉案 tax amount of the suspect has reached the standard of "huge amount"， and the legal sentencing is from ten years of imprisonment to life imprisonment. In the early stage of the review and prosecution of this case， the procuratorial authorities provided a sentencing recommendation of more than ten years of imprisonment. After our lawyers intervened， we requested to re-fix the key evidence. After supplementary investigation， the case was transferred for review and prosecution again. The procuratorial authorities ultimately legally determined that the suspect constituted self-reporting， and the sentencing recommendation was significantly reduced to five years of imprisonment. During the trial stage， the court combined all the facts of the case and convicted the individual and the entity crimes separately， imposed a combined sentence of imprisonment， and finally executed a total of four years of imprisonment. This case has a high legal penalty base and significant defense resistance. The team precisely identified the key breakthrough points， ultimately achieving a far better-than-expected lenient sentencing result， and the defense effectiveness was remarkable.
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Core facts of the case: Key elements behind the cross-city arrest operation
(1) Basic Information of the Case
From 2021 to 2023, suspect X, in an attempt to help his company deduct the input VAT, was involved in two criminal acts: one was having others issue VAT special invoices for the company falsely, and the other was introducing others to issue VAT special invoices falsely. The criminal tax amounts of the involved units and individuals have all reached the "huge amount" standard.
(II) Case Jurisdiction and Capture Process
Since the suspect X was in City B while the jurisdiction of the case was City A, in September 2024, the police officer handling the case in City A first contacted X by phone. X voluntarily and completely confessed all the criminal facts of the tax fraud involving the issuance of value-added tax special invoices and explicitly stated that he could go to City A to cooperate with the investigation by himself, expressing his willingness to come forward voluntarily. However, X did not receive any voice communication afterwards. In October 2024, the police officer directly went to X's home and arrested him. It was also found out that before the first interrogation by the public security authorities, X had voluntarily paid the relevant taxes, demonstrating a clear attitude of repentance.
02
The core difficulty of the defense: Disputes over the determination of the voluntary surrender element and the initial sentencing recommendation.
(1) The dilemma of sentencing recommendations during the review and prosecution stage
Our lawyer only got involved in this case during the review and prosecution stage. The initial sentencing recommendation by the procuratorate was more than ten years in prison. The main reasons are as follows: 1. There is significant doubt about whether "being notified to surrender by phone" constitutes self-surrender, and the initiative in surrendering is hardly recognized; 2. Key phone recordings, communication records, etc. are missing, and the factual determination lacks support.
(2) The core controversy in the determination of voluntary surrender
In judicial practice, there is a divergence of opinions on whether "arriving at the scene after being notified by the investigation authority and truthfully confessing" can be regarded as voluntary surrender:
Negative view: It is believed that the telephone notification constitutes a summons, and the investigation authorities have already obtained preliminary clues of the crime. The suspect's arrival at the scene was not due to their own initiative but was a result of being compelled to come.
2. Supporting viewpoint: It is argued that phone notifications do not fall under the mandatory measures stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Law, and are also different from formal summonses. The suspect still has the option to refuse to appear or flee. Their active cooperation in the investigation should be regarded as demonstrating initiative and voluntariness in surrendering.
03
The key to the defense breakthrough: dual self-surrender argument + returning to supplementary investigation to fix evidence
(1) Core Defense Opinions of the Lawyer
Given the characteristics of this case, which involved cross-city notification and no prior appearance at the police station, the lawyer clearly put forward two progressive reasons for recognizing the voluntary surrender, covering all the logical aspects of the recognition:
Type of voluntary surrender: After receiving a call from the police officer, the suspect cooperated with the investigation and explicitly stated that he could come to City A to accept the punishment on his own. He had a subjective intention to voluntarily surrender and, objectively, did not evade or resist, which conforms to the characteristics of voluntary surrender.
2. Surrender upon Capture: Even if X's behavior is not regarded as an act of voluntarily coming forward, once X knew that the public security authorities had filed a case against him, he always cooperated, did not leave his fixed residence, and waited for arrest. This is a type of surrender upon capture where the suspect "knows that the investigation authorities are coming but does not flee and waits for handling". It also possesses the elements of initiative and voluntariness in returning to the authorities.
(2) Retaining key evidence after returning for supplementary investigation
After our lawyer formally submitted the legal opinion to the procuratorial authority, the handling procuratorial office adopted our defense viewpoint and returned the case to the public security bureau for supplementary investigation, and explicitly requested the retrieval of the phone notification recordings from September 2024. At the same time, the investigation authority supplemented and collected relevant proof materials showing that the suspect X voluntarily paid back the taxes before the first interrogation. These two key pieces of evidence mutually corroborate, forming a complete "actively turning themselves in and truthfully confessing their crimes + actively paying back taxes and showing sincere remorse" evidence loop. After the supplementary investigation was completed and the case was transferred for review and prosecution for the second time, the procuratorial authority legally determined that the suspect X constituted self-reporting, and the sentencing recommendation was adjusted from more than ten years of imprisonment to five years of imprisonment.
(III) Legal Basis Support
According to Article 67 of the Criminal Law: If a criminal voluntarily surrenders after committing the crime and truthfully confesses his crimes, it is considered as self-surrender. For criminals who have self-surrendered, they can be given lighter or mitigated punishment. Among them, if the crime is relatively minor, they can be exempted from punishment.
If a suspect, defendant or prisoner who has been subject to compulsory measures voluntarily confesses to other crimes committed by himself/herself that have not yet been discovered by the judicial authorities, such confession shall be regarded as a confession of guilt.
Although the suspect does not possess the self-surrendering circumstances stipulated in the first two paragraphs, if he/she truthfully confesses his/her crimes, he/she can be given a lighter punishment; if he/she truthfully confesses his/her crimes and avoids the occurrence of particularly serious consequences, he/she can be given a reduced punishment.
2. The first article of the "Interpretation by the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Cases of Turning Himself In and Merits of Loyalty" stipulates: Self-reporting refers to the situation where the criminal facts or the criminal suspect has not been discovered by the judicial authorities, or although discovered, the criminal suspect has not been interrogated or has not been subject to compulsory measures, and voluntarily and directly reports to the public security authorities, people's procuratorate, or people's court.
3. The Supreme People's Court issued the "Notice on Certain Specific Issues Concerning Self-Surrender and Meritorious Service": 1. Regarding the specific determination of "voluntary surrender", according to Article 1, Paragraph 1 of the "Interpretation", if a criminal suspect has any of the following circumstances, they should also be regarded as having voluntarily surrendered: 1) After committing the crime, they voluntarily reported the crime, although they did not identify themselves as the perpetrator, but remained at the scene and did not flee, and confessed their crimes during the questioning by the judicial authorities; 2) They were at the scene when others reported the crime, and upon being arrested, they did not resist arrest and confessed their crimes...
4. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Guidelines for Sentencing Common Crimes (Trial Implementation)" (Article 14): For defendants who plead guilty, considering factors such as the nature of the crime, the severity of the offense, the stage, degree, value, and remorse of the plea of guilt, the base sentence can be reduced by no more than 30%; if the defendant has circumstances such as self-reporting, major confession, returning stolen or lost property, making compensation and obtaining forgiveness, conducting criminal reconciliation, etc., the base sentence can be reduced by no more than 60%, and if the crime is relatively minor, the base sentence can be reduced by more than 60% or be exempted from punishment in accordance with the law. Pleading guilty and self-reporting, confession in court voluntarily, returning stolen or lost property, making compensation and obtaining forgiveness, conducting criminal reconciliation, good performance during detention, etc. shall not be evaluated repeatedly.
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Case defense outcome: Downgraded sentence reduction, achieving judicial fairness and protection of rights and interests.
The court ultimately accepted the defense arguments of our lawyer and determined that X's actions constituted a confession of guilt. Considering his proactive payment of taxes, admission of guilt, and remorseful behavior, in accordance with the notice issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on "The Guidelines for Sentencing Common Crimes (Trial Implementation)", the court imposed a significant leniency on X:
• During the second review and prosecution stage: After the prosecution determined that the suspect had surrendered voluntarily, the sentencing recommendation was reduced to five years.
• In the first instance, the court ruled that the offender would be sentenced to a total of 4 years in prison for multiple crimes, successfully achieving a reduction in the sentence.
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Lawyer's Note: Self-Surrender Situations in Practice
According to the provisions of the Criminal Law, voluntary surrender must simultaneously meet the two requirements of "automatically reporting to the authorities" and "truthfully confessing one's own crimes".
(1) Regarding the provisions on "voluntary surrender"
According to the "Interpretation by the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Cases of Self-Surrender and Meritorious Conduct" and the "Opinions on Several Specific Issues Concerning Self-Surrender and Meritorious Conduct", a total of 16 circumstances can be regarded as "self-surrender". Specifically as follows:
(1) Where the criminal facts or the criminal suspect was not discovered by the judicial authorities, and voluntarily and directly surrendered themselves to the public security authorities, the people's procuratorate, or the people's court;
(2) Where the criminal facts or the suspect have been discovered, but the suspect has not yet been interrogated or subjected to any compulsory measures, and voluntarily and directly surrenders to the public security authorities, the people's procuratorate, or the people's court;
(3) The suspect surrenders to his employer, local community organizations, or other relevant responsible personnel;
(4) The suspect, due to illness, injury or in order to mitigate the consequences of the crime, entrusts someone else to surrender on his behalf, or surrenders by letter or telegram first;
(5) Where the criminal act was not discovered by the judicial authorities, but the offender voluntarily confessed their crime after being questioned and educated by relevant organizations or judicial authorities due to suspicious behavior.
(6) Those who fled after committing a crime and, during the process of being wanted and pursued, voluntarily surrendered themselves to the authorities;
(7) If it is confirmed that the person has already prepared to surrender or is on the way to surrender and is subsequently captured by the police, such situation shall be regarded as an act of voluntary surrender.
(8) It was not the suspect's own initiative, but was instead a result of persuasion from relatives and friends, and the suspect came to surrender with their accompaniment.
(9) When the public security authorities notify the relatives of the suspect, or when the relatives report the case on their own initiative, and then the suspect is brought to surrender by the relatives;
(10) After committing a crime, the offender voluntarily reported the incident. Although they did not explicitly claim to be the perpetrator, they did not flee the scene. During the questioning by the judicial authorities, they confessed their crimes.
(11) Where one knows that others have reported the crime but still waits at the scene, and does not resist arrest during the capture, and confesses the criminal facts;
(12) Those who voluntarily confessed their crimes while the judicial authorities were still conducting general inquiries and identifications of the suspects;
(13) During the period when being subject to administrative or judicial coercive measures such as labor reeducation, administrative detention, judicial detention, or compulsory isolation for drug rehabilitation due to specific illegal acts, if one voluntarily discloses criminal acts that had not yet been discovered by the enforcement authorities;
(14) Those who protect the scene of a traffic accident, rescue the injured, and report to the police afterwards;
(15) If a criminal act has not been discovered by relevant departments or judicial authorities, but is voluntarily confessed after being questioned and educated due to suspicious behavior, it shall be regarded as an act of self-surrender.
(16) Other circumstances that are in line with the legislative intent and should be regarded as voluntary surrender.
This indicates that the Supreme People's Court adopts a lenient attitude towards "self-surrender" in the context of self-reporting. As long as it can demonstrate the initiative and voluntariness of the suspect's self-reporting, it can be regarded as "self-surrender".
(2) Regarding the provision of "truthfully confessing one's own crimes"
Make a truthful confession of one's own crimes. Besides confessing the main facts of the crime, one should also include information such as name, age, occupation, address, and criminal record. Although there may be differences between the identity and other information provided by the suspect and the true situation, if it does not affect the determination of guilt and sentencing, it should be regarded as a truthful confession of one's own crimes. If a suspect voluntarily surrenders and then conceals their true identity and other information, which affects the determination of guilt and sentencing, it cannot be regarded as a truthful confession of one's own crimes. [1]
If a suspect has repeatedly committed the same type of crime, the relevant facts that have been confessed and those that have not been confessed should be comprehensively considered to determine whether they can be regarded as having truthfully disclosed the main criminal facts. Even if the suspect did not disclose all the criminal facts after surrendering, the criminal facts that have been disclosed are generally more serious than those that have not been disclosed, or the criminal amount disclosed is generally greater than that not disclosed. In such cases, it is generally considered that the suspect has truthfully disclosed the main criminal facts. If the severity of the criminal facts disclosed and not disclosed cannot be distinguished, or if the criminal amount disclosed and not disclosed is the same, it is generally not considered that the suspect has truthfully disclosed the main criminal facts. [2]
Although the suspect did not disclose the main facts of his crimes when he voluntarily surrendered, if he voluntarily confessed the main facts of his crimes before the judicial authorities had fully ascertained them, such confession should be regarded as a truthful account of his crimes. [3]
In cases of joint crimes, "the suspect, in addition to truthfully confessing his own crimes, must also disclose the accomplices he knows. The principal offender must disclose the joint criminal facts of other accomplices he knows. Only then can it be considered as a confession of crime." [4] In general joint crime cases, the arrested criminals, in addition to truthfully confessing their own crimes, also need to disclose their accomplices, but it is not required to truthfully disclose the joint criminal facts of their accomplices, and this alone can be considered as a confession of crime.
Footnote:
[1]. Refer to Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the "Notice Issued by the Supreme People's Court on Certain Specific Issues Concerning Self-Surrender and Acts of Merit".
[2]. Refer to Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the "Notice Issued by the Supreme People's Court on Certain Specific Issues Concerning Self-Surrender and Acts of Merit".
[3]. Refer to Article 2, Paragraph 3 of the "Notice Issued by the Supreme People's Court on Certain Specific Issues Concerning Self-Surrender and Acts of Merit".
[4]. Refer to Article 1, Paragraph 2 of the "Interpretation by the Supreme People's Court on the Specific Application of Law in Handling Confessions and Acts of Merit".
