Tong Min used to be an excellent teacher, has won many levels of quality class competition awards, and has long served as headmaster of Hejiang Tianli School under 01773.HK. Tianli Education is a well-known private educational institution in Sichuan, with a market capitalization of more than 20 billion yuan at its peak and a current market capitalization of about 4.1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

"Live well" is an article published by Tong Min on Sina blog in February 2017. At that time, she was in a bad mood and was too sad to sleep. At the end of the article, Tong Min wrote: "on this road, I will work hard and love myself." Learn to live your own life, learn to be happy and happy to withdraw money, to achieve your goals. "

But the reality is, Tong Min fell into the joy of money circle, not only did not live well, but also let dozens of families miserable.

According to a survey conducted by Securities Times e Company, from 2017 to 2020, Tong Min, relying on his capacity as headmaster of Hejiang Tianli Primary School, announced that he could buy shares in Tianli Kindergarten, Tianli training School, or Tianli Logistics Distribution Company, using high returns as bait. He is suspected of defrauding students' parents, relatives and friends, etc., more than 5000 million yuan.

Tong Min is obsessed with online games. In the last 7 years, he has recharged about 30 million yuan to a game platform for playing a role-playing online game. In 2019 and 2020, Tong Min's "game career" ushered in a highlight moment, when her "Taoruo" and "beloved" teams successively won the annual championship at the top of the Imperial City.

Excellent teachers and suspected fraud are like two sides of the same coin printed on Tong Min at the same time. In the end, Tong Min abandoned his husband to the end of his life and ended his life in early June this year.

High-yield bait

In January 2017, Tong Min signed an agreement with Wang Bizhen (a pseudonym) on the grounds of investing in the Tianli cooperation project, which invested 240000 yuan, while Tong Min promised to pay a dividend at the end of each year. Under the inducement of high dividends, Tong Min and Wang Bizhen signed a supplementary agreement (capital composition and dividend supplement) for senior executives of Shenzhou Tianli Education Group on December 23, 2018 and January 19, 2019, with an additional investment of 4.2 million yuan.

Wang Bizhen told the Securities Times e Company that in the past two years, Tong Min has repeatedly taken millions of yuan from her on the grounds of project investment and loan turnover. Over the past five years, Wang Bizhen transferred 9.7 million yuan to Tong Min, which, if added to her own capital cost, invested more than 10 million yuan.

Qian Fuhui (not her real name), who wants to get on the Tongmin Fortune Express, told the Securities Times e Company that she probably learned in November 2018 that her friend Wang Bizhen had bought a stake in Tianli Group and invested in Tianli's training school through the company's senior executive Tong Min. The expected return is quite good.

In many exchanges since then, Qian Fuhui learned from Wang Bizhen that he could also invest in Tianli School on Chunyu Road, Longmatan, Luzhou, with an annual income of 18.5%, which is an internal benefit enjoyed by Tong Min, a senior executive of Tianli Education Group. At the beginning of 2019, Tong Min invited Wang Bizhen and other "shareholders" to come home for reunion, and Qian Fuhui also went there, thus getting to know Tong Min.

Since then, Tong Min found Qian Fuhui alone and brought him a high-profit project. On January 23, 2019, the two parties signed the "Shenzhou Tianli Education Group Executive Supplementary Agreement (capital composition and dividend supplement)". Party An is "Shenzhou Tianli Education Group Co., Ltd.", Party B "Tong Min" and Party C "Qian Fuhui".

In the amount of investment of Party B, Party C Qian Fuhui participated in the investment of 600000 yuan to increase capital equal to that of Party B, and the dividend was the same as that of Party B.

In June 2019 and January 2020, Qian Fuhui (Party A) signed an investment share agency agreement with Tong Min (Party B). Party An entrusted Party B to hold the right to invest dividends in the professional shares of Shenzhou Tianli Education Group on behalf of Party A. the two contracts involved 500000 yuan respectively. In order to get Qian Fuhui to sign the two contracts, Tong Min promised a high percentage of dividends with an annual return of 18.5% and 22%, respectively.

Over the past two years, Qian Fuhui transferred a total of 1.6 million yuan to Tong Min three times. Why call Tong Min's private account? On this issue, Tong Min explained to the investors that she is a senior executive of Tianli Education Group to have these benefits, and only group executives can invest in these projects. On the other hand, Tong Min has to scrape together her quota, which requires more than 30 million yuan, so she can only call on her account.

In addition, Tong Min also introduced the project to build Chunyu Road Kindergarten to he Ankang (a pseudonym), a parent of Hejiang Tianli School, who transferred a total of 1.1 million yuan to Tong Min from November 23, 2019 to May 24, 2020. Since arriving at Hejiang Tianli School, Tong Min has long rented Wu Shulin (a pseudonym) to commute between Luzhou City and Hejiang County, and the driver has also transferred 600000 yuan to invest in Tong Min's training and logistics projects.

Today, if you look closely, the contracts signed between Tong Min and investors are full of loopholes and even contradict each other. However, under the inducement of high dividends, none of these problems is a "problem". Dozens of families have transferred tens of millions of yuan to Tongmin account.

Human design and creation

In these so-called investment cooperation, Tianli Education was used by Tong Min to make up projects and raise funds everywhere.

A reporter from Securities Times e Company learned that Tong Min's investment territory was first laid out from the circle of relatives and friends, and gradually penetrated into friends' friends, students' parents, chauffeured taxi drivers, and so on.

During the period involved in the case, Tong Min held the post of headmaster of Hejiang Tianli School Primary School for a long time (from 2017 to the end of 2020), which made Tong Min respectable. In fact, Tong Min has indeed been an excellent teacher and has won many national, provincial and municipal awards in high-quality class competitions. Therefore, in the view of "investors", the Tianli investment project launched by Tong Min is very credible.

What reassured the "investor" was an important contract made by Tong Minxiu, the "Executive Supplementary Agreement of Shenzhou Tianli Education Group." This agreement was signed on January 6, 2018. Party An is "Shenzhou Tianli Education Group Co., Ltd." and Party B is "Tong Min". The core content is the above-mentioned Chunyu Road Campus Kindergarten Project.

According to the agreement, Tong Min's right to operate and manage Chunyu Road Kindergarten will begin in 2019 until he has served in China Tianli Education Group for 10 years until he is normally transferred or retired. After the completion of the construction of the kindergarten (unified construction by Shenzhou Tianli Education Group), it will be handed over to Party B for unified operation and management, and the integrated management mode of Shenzhou Tianli Education Group will be implemented. Tong Min shall bear the operating profits and losses.

The agreement also shows that after Party A spun off Chunyu Road Kindergarten from the listed company, Ren Luoshi was appointed as one of the shareholders of the park, with a total investment budget of 80 million yuan and Tong Min as one of the shareholders who contributed 10 million yuan. Luo Shi here, the founder of Tianli Education and chairman of the board of directors of the actual controller, is currently assisting the regulatory authorities in the investigation for personal reasons.

In the settlement of this agreement, there is the signature of "Luo Shi" and the fresh seal of "Shenzhou Tianli Education Investment Co., Ltd." (hereinafter referred to as Shenzhou Tianli). The name of the stamping company is not exactly the same as that of Party A, and there are many sick sentences in the text of the agreement, but for the "investors" who were looking forward to high returns at that time, these will not arouse their vigilance.

Moreover, the Chunyu Road Kindergarten mentioned in Tong Min's contract is indeed a Tianli education project, and it has led "investors" to inspect the construction site many times to draw a beautiful blueprint.

Qian Fuhui told the Securities Times e company reporter that Tong Min said that this is a welfare for senior executives of Tianli Group, which cannot be spread abroad, and that the dividend income is good. Tianli Education is also a listed company in Hong Kong shares, with brand protection. In addition, Tong Min's husband Li Qinghua has long served as director of the judicial bureau of Luxian County in Luzhou City (removed from the post on June 9, 2021) and will not violate the law and discipline. I have no doubt about this investment. During these two years, Qian Fuhui often went to Tianli Chunyu Kindergarten and looked at the gradually completed school building, full of longing.

Tianli: the contract with Tong Min was terminated at the end of last year.

On Thursday, May 27, 2021, Qian Fuhui urged Tong Min to cash in the project dividend or refund. Tong Min replied that the president had signed and the account would be received by next Monday before Friday. The next day, Tong Min took the initiative to send a Wechat message to Qian Fuhui explaining that the company's financial staff would deal with the matter by next Monday morning.

On May 31, when Qian Fuhui contacted Tong Min again to cash in her money back, her cell phone was turned off. Similarly, other "investors" have no longer been able to contact Tong Min.

At that time, the "investor" realized that he had been deceived and called the police. On June 7, Jiangyang District Branch of Luzhou Public Security Bureau filed a case against Tong Min for suspected contract fraud, which believed that the crime had occurred.

Although Tong Min is missing, the Tianli Education Project is always there. In mid-June this year, victims went to Tianli Education to learn about the situation and seek solutions.

In a recording provided by the victim (June 16), Chen Guangming, president of Tianli Education Luzhou School District, said that there were rumors at that time that Tong Min used Tianli shares and kindergarten shares to have a loan relationship between school teachers. The investment projects mentioned by Tong Min are all false. Subsequently, after Chen Guangming went to the teachers to learn about this kind of lending behavior, he quickly reported it to the group, and the group legal department set up an investigation team to Hejiang Tianli to understand the situation, and the relevant situation was true.

According to the recording, Chen Guangming said Tong Min's loan relationship with the teacher ranged from 3 million yuan to 4 million yuan, and asked him to pay off the loan. In addition, Tong Min was repeatedly asked by the school if she wanted any other loan relationship, but she denied it every time. At that time, Tianli Education also announced the matter at the staff meeting.

Chen Guangming also said frankly that after weighing, if Tong Min still has such a loan relationship in society, then other measures will be taken immediately; if it is only in the school, considering that they are colleagues at that time and have to live in the future, it is decided to deal with it in the school, including writing and checking, and paying off debts. In March 2020, Tianli Education discovered Tong Min's behavior for the first time. At that time, he dared not fire Tong Min immediately, fearing that the school teacher would not be able to repay the loan. But after paying off the teacher's loan, Tong Min did not stop, so he was fired in December.

In order to verify the authenticity of the above recording, a reporter from Securities Times e Company went to Luzhou Tianli International School, whose principal is Chen Guangming. After the reporter indicated the purpose of the interview, the relevant staff said that Tong Min belonged to Hejiang Tianli, and the headmaster of Luzhou Tianli had no obligation to respond to the matter. At that time, the reporter called Chen Guangming's mobile phone number many times, but there was no answer all the time.

Subsequently, a reporter from Securities Times e Company came to Hejiang Tianli, and the headmaster marked at the gate of the school was also Chen Guangming. A self-proclaimed headmaster of Hejiang Tianli High School said that Chen Guangming was the principal of Tianli Luzhou district, but he was not at school that day, and the person did not respond to Tong Min's suspected contract fraud.

(the person on the right claims to be the senior high school principal of Hejiang Tianli School)

However, a teacher from Hejiang Tianli told the Securities Times e Company that at that time, everyone thought that the bank interest on their spare money was too low, so they lent it to Tong Min, so they could have a very high rate of return (interest 1% 5), and the amount of the loan ranged from hundreds of thousands to 1 million. In the second half of 2020, in addition to individual accounts, Tong Min continued to pay off the teacher's loans one after another, but the teacher also had hundreds of thousands of outstanding loans.

In response to related problems, Shenzhou Tianli wrote back to a reporter from Securities Times e Company, pointing out that when Tong Min was the principal of Hejiang Tianli Primary School from September 2017 to November 2020, he made up a large amount of equity and investment projects in Tianli, China, and borrowed money from core colleagues of the school, seriously violating organizational discipline. After Shenzhou Tianli verified and urged Tong Min to return all his colleagues' loans, in December 2020, the company dismissed Tong Min Primary School headmaster and terminated the labor contract.

Continue to cheat by Tianli project

A bolt from the blue, from an "investor" to a victim in an instant, the previous huge investment quickly turned into nothingness.

Qian Fuhui told the Securities Times e Company that the main reason for being cheated was that she was too superstitious about the identity of the primary school principal of Tong Min Hejiang Tianli School and the brand of Tianli Education.

Data show that Tianli Education (01773.HK), a well-known private education group in Sichuan, has a history dating back to 2002. It is mainly engaged in providing Kmur12 education services, supplemented by training services for Kmur12 students and preschool children, and successfully landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2018.

At present, Tianli Education covers four sections from kindergarten to senior high school. As of June 30, 2021, Tianli Education owns and operates 26 self-owned schools and provides management services for 6 trusteeship schools and comprehensive education services for 58200 students, an increase of 42.5 per cent compared with 40800 students in the same period in 2020.

Returning to the Tong Min case, a reporter from Securities Times e Company learned from the parent office of he Ankang (a pseudonym), a student at Tianli Hejiang School, that in March 2021, Tong Min also charged him 60, 000 yuan through mobile bank and Wechat transfer on the grounds that there was a vacancy in Tianli Group's equity. In the same month, Tong Min told the parent that she had been transferred back to Luzhou headquarters from Hejiang Tianli School to take charge of logistics work, and set up a distribution company to undertake several Tianli school canteens, seeking parents to buy shares. During the period from March 22 to April 25, 2021, Tong Min obtained 1.26 million yuan from the above parents in the name of Tianli original equity investment, school canteen shares, food materials bidding deposit and so on.

In addition, on March 25 this year, Wu Shulin signed a logistics dividend agreement with Tong Min and transferred 250000 yuan to him.

Some victims believed that Shenzhou Tianli knew full well that Tong Min defrauded his teacher and violated the law, but he did not report it to the public security organs, supervision departments, and the Commission for discipline Inspection. China Tianli internal management dereliction of duty, Tianli discipline Inspection Commission organization did not perform its duties in place, and did not stop Tong Min as principal of Hejiang Tianli School in time. Indirectly conniving and shielding Tong Min to continue to commit fraudulent criminal activities, resulting in more people being deceived and victimized, Shenzhou Tianli has an unshirkable responsibility.

In response, Shenzhou Tianli replied that Tong Min's illegal acts carried out through fictional identities, fictional units, fictional facts, etc., Shenzhou Tianli and his school did not know; Tong Min's personal illegal and criminal acts, there is no legal or factual relationship with Shenzhou Tianli and its school; Tong Min has committed suicide in fear of crime, and the Jiangyang District Branch of Luzhou Public Security Bureau has filed a case for investigation of his suspected fraud. With regard to all the handling results of the incident, the conclusion of Jiangyang District Branch of Luzhou Public Security Bureau shall prevail.

In the investment project made up by Tong Min, Tianli Chunyu Road Kindergarten was repeatedly used, and many victims regarded it as their own "baby" and watched it grow up bit by bit. On September 26, 2021, Tianli Chunyu Road Kindergarten ushered in the opening ceremony, but it did not belong to them. According to Tianyan, Luo Shi directly owns 99% of Shenzhou Tianli, while the latter owns 100% of Shenzhou Tianli Chunyu Kindergarten Co., Ltd., Longmatan District, Luzhou City through its wholly-owned grandson company.

The dean of Tianli Chunyu Road Kindergarten repeatedly stressed to the Securities Times e Company that the kindergarten is wholly owned by Shenzhou Tianli, and the school executives have no equity. The dean sympathized with the victims, but hoped that he would not go too far. It also said that from the school's point of view, affected by the Tong Min incident, it also created a bad perception in society, and Tianli was also a victim.

Indulge in online games regardless of cost

Without buying a luxury house, driving a luxury car, or sweeping luxury goods, where did the tens of millions of yuan that Tong Min collected flow to?

A reporter from Securities Times e Company learned from many sources that Tong Min did not spend too much money on material pleasures, but invested in the virtual game world. Since 2014, Tong Min has recharged more than 30 million yuan to a game platform in the past seven years, almost all of which is used to play a role-playing online game.

In September 2009, the game began internal testing; in August 2010, the game company CEO said, "We hope that our game products will convey a positive outlook on life and values to the public through spokesmen. "

According to a game recharger surnamed Ye, he and Tong Min first met in the game in 2014 and gradually established trust, according to a reporter from Securities Times e Company. The player began to recharge Tong Min's game account in 2016 and lasted until the day before Tong Min disappeared on May 31, 2021. He also helped Tong Min recharge 20, 000 yuan on May 30, and accumulated about 100000 yuan in the last week. Over the past five years, the total amount of the game recharge for Tong Min has reached more than 1500 million yuan, while Tong Min still owes the game recharge dealer about 600000 yuan (excluding interest). Now all running water and all the information has been submitted to the public security organ of Luzhou City, Sichuan Province.

The recharge merchant frankly said that Tong Min does not understand what he is doing in real life, but in the game, Tong Min exists like a god. Tong Min spends a lot of money. The famous "Taoruo team" in the game is founded by Tong Min. He hires 4 or 5 trainers all the year round, and usually has small red envelopes, and even team competition rewards of millions of yuan are all distributed to team members. In the whole game, no one knows her spending power, the actual consumption is scary, and all the enemies are hit with money.

Another senior player said that if Tao Ruo is very famous, rich and arrogant in the game, the average annual profit of his training team is conservatively estimated to be hundreds of thousands of yuan. Since there is no recharge limit for the game, which also helps Tao Ruo to become famous, she can no longer be described as addicted to the game, but more like a demon, regardless of cost and consequences.

The player pointed out that there are a lot of rich local tycoons in the game, but people like Taoruo are very rare. Most players defend an area for deep ploughing, while Taoro invests a lot of money in many districts. Once there was a game, if peaches and each other dry red wine eyes, the cost of the game that day may reach the level of millions of yuan. At the beginning of the period, players are not clear about their true identity and the origin of their funds. Taoruo often packages himself as the boss of Tianli Group in the game. But since then, as a result of a war of words with others in the game forum, the other party checked the real identity of the owner of the game account as "Tong Min" through a screenshot of the bank transfer sheet.

However, the reporter consulted the game forum and found only two posts about Tao Ruo, and more content may have long been deleted. Although the person is not in the rivers and lakes, but the elder sister's legend still exists, Tong Min has indeed played the "result" in the game.

As reported in the press release on the game's official website, "I believe everyone is no stranger to Tao Ruo, and the game character Baihua Doctor, who ranks first in the world, is a famous writer in the forum novel group, with numerous fans, which can be said to be rich and beautiful with both talent and appearance. "

In the "2019 National Competition for Supremacy", Taoruo's team had the highest appeal to win the championship, and she didn't let everyone down, cutting through all the difficulties all the way. Taoruo team invested more in the cultivation of Haozi, and strived for perfection in detail, and finally won the championship at the top of the Imperial City in 2019, with a bonus of 600000 yuan. In 2020, another team of Tong Min's team, called "beloved", played unprecedentedly stable, living up to expectations and won the title of the top of the imperial city in 2020.

Are Tianli Education and Game companies to be held responsible?

At present, because the suspect Tong Min has passed away, according to Article 16 of the Criminal procedure Law of the people's Republic of China, the public security organs do not investigate his criminal responsibility, but his civil liability can still be investigated. The victim may require his legal heirs to bear civil liability within the scope of inheritance.

A number of victims told the Securities Times e Company that Tianli Education also needs to bear some responsibility for its internal management dereliction of duty and failed to deal with the Tong Min incident in a timely manner, indirectly conniving at and causing more people to be deceived and property losses. In addition, some of the victims have lost their money, and they hope that the game company can return part of the game money from a humanitarian point of view.

As a result, whether other civil subjects in Tong Min's suspected contract fraud case bear legal liability is also the focus of this case: first, whether the company involved in the case should bear responsibility; second, whether the top-up money that enters the game platform and the wage money of the game team can be recovered; third, whether Tong Min's husband should bear the responsibility?

In response to the above case, Xian Yuanke, a lawyer from Sichuan Junhe Law firm, told the Securities Times e Company that whether Tianli Education should be held responsible can be analyzed from two aspects: criminal liability and civil liability.

The first is criminal liability. Xianyuanke personally believes that the company involved in the case does not constitute the crime of contract fraud from the current evidence. According to the case information disclosed at present, there is no relevant evidence to prove that there is a joint intentional crime between the company involved and Tong, which does not belong to the accomplice of Tong suspected of contract fraud and should not bear criminal responsibility.

Secondly, from the perspective of civil liability, the key to whether the company involved in the case should bear civil liability is to determine:

1. Whether Tong's behavior constitutes apparent agency. Apparent agency refers to an agent whose behavior is sufficient to make the third party believe that the unauthorized agent has the right of agency, and to give such trust to the unauthorized agent to carry out legal acts. According to Article 172 of the Civil Code of the people's Republic of China, the apparent agency act is valid and the principal shall bear the legal responsibility for the agency act.

However, according to the known case information, although Tong made up his shares in the company and the project involved in the case to defraud other people's property by virtue of the identity of the principal of the company involved in the case, he did not absorb foreign investment and promised dividends on behalf of the company involved in the case. the company involved in the case did not benefit from it. Tong is not the agent of the company involved in the case and does not constitute an apparent agent. Unless there is evidence to the contrary that Tong carried out the above acts in the name of the company involved and the victim has reason to believe that Tong has the authority of agency.

2. In this case, whether the company involved is at fault and whether there is a causal relationship between the fault behavior and the property loss suffered by the victim.

In this case, more evidence and official investigation results are needed to verify whether the company involved is at fault. If the company involved knows that Tong is the principal of its branch school, provide relevant information (such as proof materials with the seal of the company involved) and fabricate it to defraud others' property such as shares in the company and the project involved in the case. Situations where effective measures have not been taken (such as reporting to the police, rescinding the labor contract with Tong, issuing a statement to clarify the relevant facts and taking other legal measures to investigate Tong's responsibility, etc.) may be found to be at fault for the relevant losses, shall bear legal liability, and the specific liability shall be specifically determined.

In the Tong Min case, a large amount of money has been spent on game consumption, so can the top-up money and game team wages that enter the game platform be recovered?

Xian Yuanke pointed out that Article 10 of the provisions of the Supreme people's Court on the Enforcement of Criminal Adjudication involving property stipulates that the people's court shall recover stolen money and goods and their proceeds at the same time. However, whether the game platform recharge and the game team salary can be recovered is a controversial and thorny issue in legal theory and practice, which involves the conflict of legal interests between the recovery of stolen money and bona fide acquisition.

Article 11 of the provisions of the Supreme people's Court on the Enforcement of property related to Criminal Adjudication Article 11 on the recovery of stolen money and stolen goods and the protection of the legal interests of bona fide third parties and relevant cases in practice can provide us with reference:

As for the top-up money of the game platform, some courts held that it is not realistic to require the game platform or merchants to know in advance whether the player traded with the stolen money. The game platform is a bona fide third party, and the game platform pays the corresponding consideration for obtaining the game recharge money of the player. It provides relevant services and belongs to the normal trading behavior in the market economy. In order to encourage transactions, avoid unrest factors, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the bona fide third party. Therefore, there is no need to recover the game recharge.

For the game team salary, reward, etc., it is necessary to verify whether it is Tong's gift to the game team, and if the game team salary and reward are Tong's gift to the game team, the two sides form the legal relationship of the gift contract, because in the gift contract, the donee has no obligation to pay, only the donor has the obligation to pay the gift property, so the gift contract is a single contract, free contract. It is based on the particularity of the gift that some courts think that for the gift, the donee does not pay the consideration matched with the gift (labor or goods, services, etc.), and is not obtained in good faith, so the relevant money should be recovered.

In addition, Xian Yuanke mentioned that according to the currently known case information, there is no evidence to prove that Tong's husband knew and participated in Tong's illegal crime, and that he was not an accomplice of Tong's suspected contract fraud and should not bear criminal responsibility. In addition, if it can be proved that Tong's husband and Tong jointly participated in fraud, loan or related money, or that the related money is Tong's external debt for the daily life of the family, then the relevant debt belongs to the joint debt of husband and wife, and his civil liability should be investigated, otherwise, not.