In September 2014, Mr. Ma Jun, head of Taiyuan office’s criminal defense practice, was retained as defense lawyer for a man surnamed Cai, legal representative of a Shanxi-based company who had been held in detention by a local public security bureau on account of contract fraud since he was interrogated at the bureau on September 9. 

A team led by Ma went to the city where the accused had worked soon after Ma accepted the engagement. Some team members met him in the holding cell and the rest worked with key staff of the accused’s company to sort out materials relevant to the case. After a few days of careful analysis, Ma found that the accused crime of contract fraud was as a matter of fact non-existent. The plaintiff and the defendant had disputes on the distribution of return on a joint investment worth more than a hundred million yuan. Therefore, Ma believed it should only be deemed a civil dispute.

Ma’s team submitted a legal opinion letter to the prosecution illustrating the dispute between the accused and the claimant did not satisfy all elements of the crime of contract fraud provided in China’s Criminal Law, but should be deemed as ordinary commercial contract dispute. The prosecution analyzed all facts and finally adopted their view according to law and dismissed the accusation of a crime. On October 15, 2014, it issued a dismissal of arrest notice and Cai was immediately set free after 36 days’ detention.