Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Handling of Criminal Embezzlement and Bribery Cases (‘Interpretation’)has come into force on April 18 2016

The Amendment (IX) to the Criminal Law (‘Amendment’) has come into force on November 1 2015. In order to highlight the other factors on identifying an embezzlement crime or a bribery crime, and the penalty, the Amendment has stipulates the monetary threshold as ‘a large amount’, ‘a huge amount’ and ‘an extraordinarily huge amount’, instead of a specified amount. But this change has brought a lot difference on the individual cases. Recently, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate have jointly released the Interpretation. There are 20 articles, which covers 11 aspects, including the monetary threshold. There are 3 aspects could be highlighted:

To set the monetary threshold on the criminal embezzlement and bribery cases related to the state functionary

The Amendment has deleted the monetary threshold RMB 5,000 as prescribed in the Criminal Law (1997 Edition). The Interpretation has reset the monetary threshold as RMB 30,000. In addition, it has emphasized that if there is any ‘other aggravation factors’, the monetary threshold shall be RMB10,000.

To set the monetary threshold on the criminal cases related to the non-state functionary

For the bribe-accepting cases, and non-state functionary bribe cases, the monetary threshold for ‘a large amount’, ‘a huge amount’ shall be double amount of the state functionary cases; for the embezzlement cases, the monetary threshold shall be 5 times.

For the misappropriation cases, the monetary threshold for ‘a large amount’, ‘a huge amount’ and ‘used for other illegal activities’ shall be 2 times of the state functionary cases.

To further clarify the elements on identifying ‘seek benefits for others’

The Interpretation has stipulated 3 circumstances: (1) the person has or promises to seek benefits for others; (2) the person is knowing that the other person intends to seek benefits through him or her; (3) the person has not seek benefits for others while he has the position, but accepts benefits because of his previous position.