Compiled from: Tencent News, Hangzhou Daily
 
10 salespeople from a real estate company in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, took advantage of their positions as sales managers and sales staff during the sales period of a certain property to extort additional "tea fees" ranging from 6,000 yuan to 480,000 yuan from customers, with one individual accumulating up to 4 million yuan.

 
 

Recently, the Nanhu Court in Zhejiang publicly pronounced the verdict in this case of bribery by non-state functionaries, sentencing the 10 defendants to prison terms ranging from five years and six months to one year and six months, with some receiving suspended sentences.
 
 
Case Summary
1、An extra 120,000 yuan was required to purchase a popular property.
 
Shortly after the Spring Festival in 2018, Ms. Zhang, who was planning to buy a house, visited various properties. By mid-March, she heard about a highly sought-after property and rushed to the sales office to make a reservation. However, salesperson Zhou told her, "There are no units available now. If an existing buyer is willing to transfer, I'll keep an eye out for you, but it might require some extra money..."

 
 

Ms. Zhang thought it was reasonable to pay a bit more for a transferred unit and didn't object, waiting at home for the salesperson's "good news."
 
A few days later, Zhou called Ms. Zhang to inform her that a unit was available for transfer, but an additional 120,000 yuan in name-change fees was required. He specifically advised Ms. Zhang to pay this amount in cash to the transferring buyer. After some consideration, Ms. Zhang found the extra 120,000 yuan acceptable and completed the payment via Alipay.
 
A week later, Ms. Zhang signed a house purchase contract with the real estate company. Afterwards, the defendant Du, as the sales manager, took 60,000 yuan from it, and the rest was divided among the sales team of the defendants Hong and Zhou. In this way, many homebuyers of this project, like Ms. Zhang, only managed to buy houses by paying extra fees, with the highest amount reaching 480,000 yuan in "tea money."
 
2、The manager and sales staff colluded for profit.
 
The defendant Du was the key figure in this case. In February 2017, he joined this real estate company in Jiaxing as a sales manager, mainly responsible for sales channel coordination, project promotion, and client acquisition. During this period, the company paid Du a salary without any sales commission.
 
In February 2018, due to the hot sales of the company's project, Du spotted a "business opportunity." He then proposed to the defendants Hong and Zhou the idea of charging "tea money" from customers, and the three quickly agreed. They also stipulated that the "tea money" would only be collected in cash, without issuing any receipts. Du would take half of the collected "tea money," and the rest would be distributed among the sales staff and their respective team leaders.
 
This distribution method lasted for about two months. By May 2018, as the real estate market became increasingly hot, the "tea money" also grew higher. At that point, the distribution method changed: 60% of the illegally collected "tea money" went to Du, and the remaining 40% was distributed among others. Having tasted the "sweetness," Du and his accomplices did not stop.
 
Du confessed that he could no longer recall exactly how much "tea money" he had collected. When he first arrived in Jiaxing, he had less than 30,000 yuan in savings. Through collecting "tea money," he not only bought a house for himself but also paid 400,000 yuan toward his sister's home purchase. Additionally, his monthly car loan was repaid with the "tea money."
 
In July 2018, the supervisor of Du's company received external reports that the developed properties could only be purchased with an additional "tea fee." After investigating, the supervisor immediately reported the case.
 
The company stated that employees including Du, without company authorization, exploited their positions during the sale of properties by arbitrarily charging a "tea fee" to sell the company's properties at inflated prices. They directly pocketed the "tea fee" without recording it in the accounts, causing significant damage to the company's reputation.
 
 
Relevant legal provisions
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
Article 163: Crime of accepting bribes by non-state functionaries.
Employees of companies, enterprises, or other units who use their positions to demand or illegally accept property from others to seek benefits for them, if the amount is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; if the amount is huge, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years, and may also have their property confiscated.
 
Employees of companies, enterprises, or other units who, in economic transactions, use their positions to violate state regulations by accepting various forms of kickbacks or handling fees for personal possession shall be punished according to the preceding paragraph.
 
Personnel engaged in public service in state-owned companies, enterprises, or other state-owned units, and personnel dispatched by state-owned companies, enterprises, or other state-owned units to non-state-owned companies, enterprises, or other units to engage in public service, who commit the acts in the preceding two paragraphs, shall be convicted and punished according to Articles 385 and 386 of this Law.
 
 
[1] Court Opinion
After trial, the court found that defendants Du, Hong, Zhou, and others jointly used their positions as sales managers and salespersons to control property listings and sales, demanding and accepting property from others in exchange for benefits.
 
Among them, defendant Du was involved in demanding RMB 3.1747 million, defendant Hong RMB 4.0027 million, defendant Zhou RMB 2.8597 million, and defendant Kong RMB 1.72 million, all considered huge amounts. The remaining defendants demanded amounts ranging from RMB 880,000 to 300,000, considered relatively large. Their actions constituted the crime of bribery by non-state functionaries.
 
Based on the roles, positions, criminal circumstances, and attitudes of the defendants in the joint crime, the Nanhu Court accordingly rendered the above judgment.

 

 
[1] The author's perspective
For consumers, it is important to enhance self-protection awareness to prevent infringement of their rights. If consumers discover that developers, salespersons, or intermediaries engage in illegal activities such as charging "tea fees" or "quota fees" during the sale of commercial housing, they should actively collect valid evidence such as transfer receipts, receipts, or invoices, and report, provide evidence, and file complaints to industry associations or real estate market supervision authorities.
 
For sales personnel, it is essential to take a long-term perspective, plan their careers legally, abide by professional ethics, and not focus solely on immediate gains. Once they take advantage of their position to illegally demand or accept property from others in exchange for benefits, they are likely to constitute the crime of bribery by non-state functionaries.
 
For private enterprises, bribery by non-state functionaries and bribery of non-state functionaries, regardless of which act, severely impact the development of private enterprises, infringe upon their management order, and even undermine the authority of national law. Therefore, private enterprises should take preventive measures, improving institutional construction, strengthening compliance reviews, and actively promoting legal education before bearing criminal law risks and operational risks.