[3] Precious Metal Trading Fraud Leads to Total Loss; Lawyer Skillfully Obtains Evidence for Full Compensation

In March 2013, Ms. Chen was persuaded by personnel from Guoyinda Company to open a trading account with the Kunming Precious Metals Exchange, without completing any account opening procedures during the process. However, less than a month later, the trading software provided by Guoyinda Company malfunctioned and became completely inoperable. Although the system recovered on its own after three days, Ms. Chen discovered that her 300,000 yuan in trading funds had been entirely lost. Furious, Ms. Chen took Guoyinda Company, which repeatedly denied any responsibility, to court and entrusted the Zhiming lawyer team from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm to represent her in this case.

After analyzing this case, Attorney Zhi Ming believes that Guoyinda Company's actions of opening a live trading account for Ms. Chen without completing the account opening procedures for the client, and inducing her to engage in live trading, constitute suspected financial irregularities and client fraud. However, what is puzzling is that since Guoyinda Company lacked the proper procedures, how were they able to have Ms. Chen directly open an account and trade, and how did they obtain the consent and approval of the Kunming Precious Metals Exchange in the process? In response, Attorney Zhi Ming boldly speculates: Guoyinda Company likely fabricated Ms. Chen's "account opening documents" through fraudulent means, and after deceiving the Kunming Exchange's review, they granted Ms. Chen access to the platform's trading account.

To this end, Attorney Zhiming first, after the initial court session began, requested the People's Court to obtain Ms. Chen's account opening documents from Kunming Exchange by virtue of its authority. Subsequently, regarding the signature of Ms. Chen on the "Account Opening Application Form" in the aforementioned account opening documents, an application was made to the court for forensic document examination. Later, the forensic document examination conducted by Guangdong Nantian Judicial Appraisal Institute confirmed that the signature of Ms. Chen on the aforementioned "Account Opening Application Form" was not her own handwriting, thereby substantiating Attorney Zhiming's reasonable speculation! Finally, in the agency opinion of this case, Attorney Zhiming argued that the precious metals trading market experiences significant fluctuations, with both high profit potential and high risk, which is difficult for a non-professional individual investor like Ms. Chen to control. Therefore, Guoyinda Company, without signing an account opening notice with the plaintiff Ms. Chen, opened a trading account for her at the Kunming Precious Metals Exchange, resulting in a loss of 300,000 yuan for Ms. Chen. Its actions constituted clear fault and should compensate Ms. Chen for all her losses.

Thanks to the meticulous strategizing of Attorney Zhiming, the articulate and eloquent legal representative of Guoyinda Company was rendered speechless with frustration. In the end, the People's Court upheld the arguments presented by Attorney Wang Tengfeng, ruling that the defendant Guoyinda Company must compensate the plaintiff, Ms. Chen, the full amount of 300,000 yuan in damages, as well as cover all litigation costs.