Li Qing is from Hunan. He has been selling counterfeit "Ordos" and "Hengyuanxiang" brand sweaters since August 2010. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison and fined 21.51 million yuan by the Inner Mongolia Ordos Intermediate People's Court. . After the incident was exposed online, the sky-high fine sparked controversy. At the end of 2011, the Inner Mongolia High Court revoked the first-instance verdict against Li Qing and remanded the case for retrial. In May 2012, the Ordos Intermediate People's Court reiterated its verdict and reduced Li Qing's fine to 1,991,859 yuan.
Chinese name: Li Qing
Nationality: China
Birthplace: Guiyang County
Date of birth: 1978
Occupation: Businessman
Character Introduction
Li Qing’s hometown is Zengyuan Village, Ouyanghai Township, Guiyang County. When he was 16, he ended his four-year farming life and moved to the city. work to earn a living. In the next 16 years, he fell in love, got married, did business, traveled to other places, and finally settled in Chenzhou city. He successively did business in Majiaping and Fumin Market in Chenzhou.
Distributing fake goods
In August 2010, Li Qing, a farmer from Guiyang County, Hunan Province, started a clothing business with the help of relatives and friends. He rented a shop in Fumin Market, Chenzhou City Dealing in woolen sweaters. During this period, through purchasing channels, Li Qing ordered a batch of woolen sweaters from a small workshop in Tongxiang City, Zhejiang Province, including counterfeit branded woolen sweaters such as "Ordos" and "Hengyuanxiang".
Making chains
Since June 2010, Li Qing has successively purchased so-called "white shirts" from Tongxiang Huang Luying, Huang Qiuying and others, which are made by small businesses in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The wool sweaters produced by the factory without any trademarks cost between 25 yuan and 75 yuan each. He has purchased about 26,000 pieces. These "white shirts" were not sent directly back to Chenzhou. Li Qing found Zhou Jinzhu, who was 3 years older than him, and asked him to turn his "white shirt" into a famous brand.
Zhou Jinzhu did not make trademarks himself. He contacted an Anhui man named "A Zhong" to purchase various trademarks. In the hands of "A Zhong", a set of "Ordos" trademarks costs 4.5 yuan, while the "Hengyuanxiang" and "Montejiao" trademarks cost 3.5 yuan each. When Zhou Jinzhu transferred the trademark to Li Qing, the price of each set was increased accordingly. "Ordos" was 5 yuan per set, "Hengyuanxiang" was 3.8 to 4 yuan per set, and "Mengtejiao" was fixed at 4 yuan per set. With Zhou Jinzhu's contact, a man named Lu Jinfei sewed a trademark logo on the "white shirt" for Li Qing, priced at 1.5 yuan per set. After completing all the production processes, the counterfeit "Ordos" woolen sweaters were shipped from Zhejiang to Chenzhou.
Arrested and sentenced
On December 15, 2010, Ordos police, with the cooperation of local police, arrested Li Qing and others. The case took place in Chenzhou and was an inter-provincial arrest.
The Ordos Intermediate People’s Court believed that the police’s basis was a notice from the Economic Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. A notice issued on February 21, 2010 stated that on the premise that the public security authorities at the place of the main crime had no objections, the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Ordos Public Security Bureau would investigate and handle criminal cases suspected of counterfeiting the "Ordos" trademark registered by the Ordos Group in accordance with the law. .
The Ordos Intermediate People’s Court determined that the police seized 4,351 counterfeit “Ordos” sweaters in Li Qing’s store with a tag price of 2,180 yuan each, and a total of 4,351 pieces, with a tag price of 1,680 yuan each. There were 17,403 pieces of counterfeit "Ordos" sweaters worth 968 yuan each, and 4,433 pieces of counterfeit "Hengyuanxiang" sweaters with a tag price of 968 yuan each, with a total price of 26,187 yuan and a total price of 43,013,364 yuan. The price tag of more than 43 million yuan was deemed by the court as an "illegal business amount." In the end, Li Qing was sentenced to 5 years in prison and fined 21.51 million yuan.
Appeal
Regarding this verdict, Li Qing’s defender, Wang Fukui, a lawyer at Inner Mongolia Xinguang Law Firm, said that the price of the tag was ten times higher than the average market price. many. It submitted Li Qing's sales CD to the court. The CD recorded that the prices of the Ordos sweaters sold by Li Qing were 100 yuan, 120 yuan and 150 yuan respectively. The average price of Li Qing's online sales was 147.54 yuan. The Ordos Intermediate People's Court did not adopt Wang Fukui's defense opinions. The court held that the actual sales amount of the infringing goods could not be ascertained, so "tag pricing" was applicable.
Wang Fukui said, "All counterfeiting procedures have been completed in Tongxiang." Li Qing was only selling, so he should not be sentenced for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks, but should be convicted for selling goods with counterfeit trademarks. Moreover, because some goods were not sold, there was an "attempted crime" and should be given a lighter punishment. Wang Fukui said that judging from the current situation, Li Qing has only sold more than 400 pieces in the past four months, with total sales of just over 60,000 yuan and a profit of about 10,000 yuan. It is not enough to be fined 21.51 million yuan. suitable. Currently, the case has been appealed to the Inner Mongolia High Court.
The judgment was revoked
In mid-December 2011, one year after Li Qing was brought to justice, the case highlighted the "sky-high fine", which attracted public attention and earned him a lot of money. pity. On the evening of December 27, 2011, Li Qing’s wife Li Hongying stated that the Inner Mongolia High Court had revoked the first-instance judgment of the Ordos Intermediate Court in Li Qing’s case on the grounds that “the facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient” and the case was remanded for a retrial.
Reaffirmation of the verdict
After the first instance verdict in 2011, the defendant Li Qing appealed to the Inner Mongolia Higher People's Court. In December 2011, the Inner Mongolia High Court sent the case back to the Ordos Intermediate Court for a new trial on the grounds that the facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient.
At noon on May 18, 2012, defendant Li Qing’s defense lawyer Wang Fukui received the retrial judgment from the Ordos Intermediate People’s Court. Compared with the one that caused controversy last year, this judgment has undergone huge changes: Li Qing's crime has not changed, he is still guilty of counterfeiting registered trademarks, the sentence has been reduced from 5 years to 4 and a half years, and the fine has been 21.51 million yuan became 1.991859 yuan. Even so, Li Qing still could not accept such a judgment. First, he was still unable to pay the 1.99 million yuan; second, there were still differences on the key issues of the case.