How the Shanghai judges’ sex scandal was exposed

    FOR more than half a year, Chen Yuxian shadowed Zhao Minghua, the deputy chief of the No.1 civil court of Shanghai Higher People’s Court. Chen waited like a ghost at the entrance of night clubs and sneaked along hotel corridors looking for evidence to incriminate Zhao.

    Chen was exhaustive in collecting evidence, following the judge, checking his bills, purchasing special surveillance equipment and taking candid snapshots.

    On Aug. 1, Chen completed his revenge by posting online, under the name Ni Peiguo, an eight-minute video clip exposing Zhao and three other judges as corrupt.

    The footage shows Zhao and his colleagues dining at a luxurious hotel with a contractor, entertaining themselves at a Karaoke club and visiting a hotel resort to patronize prostitutes.

    Three of the four court officials involved have been dismissed from their positions and expelled from the Communist Party of China, said the Shanghai Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection last week.

    Chen, who claims to have suffered injustice through the court, after repeatedly failing with petitions, searched for justice in his own way.

    Motive for revenge

    Born and raised in Shanghai, Chen, 54, graduated from high school in 1976 and started his business in 1979. He was among the earliest to own a mobile phone in 1989 and by 1993 he was the owner of a Mercedes-Benz sedan, a symbol of wealth.

    In March 2010, Gu Guoxiang, manager of Shanghai Hengben Decoration Co., brought Chen to court. Gu demanded Chen pay the decoration cost of his inn, 7.2 million yuan (US$1.17 million), plus interest and penalties. After the final trial at Shanghai Higher People’s Court in 2012, Chen was ordered to pay 8.2 million yuan. He was forced to sell his property in order to pay the fine.

    According to Chen, the Home Inn at the center of the dispute involves 80 hotel rooms, a total space to be decorated by Gu of 1,600 square meters. The cost should have been no more than 5 million yuan, but Gu submitted a final bill of more than 11 million yuan.

    The court ruled that the contract between Chen and Gu was invalid because Gu had no decoration qualification, but it concluded that Gu’s construction costs were justified because the final decoration passed all qualification tests.

    The court demanded Chen pay 8.2 million yuan to Gu after getting an audit report from a company that had been designated by the court.

    “The verdict was unfair and one-sided,” said Chen, claiming it was a trap that Gu had planned long before Chen had signed the contract with him.

    After the court ruling, Chen and his 40 workers started a petition to various organizations in Shanghai, but had no success. He also went to Beijing six times and visited judicial bodies there, but received no response.

    Chen was indignant and seeking justice started stalking Gu and Gu’s lawyer Zhao Haijiang. He discovered the lawyer Zhao Haijiang was the younger brother of Gu’s wife, while the judge Zhao Minghua was Zhao Haijiang’s cousin.

    He recalled Gu’s claim to have a close relationship with the court and became convinced that he was the victim of a frame-up that involved lawyers and judges. He believed he had lost his law suit because of the close relationship between the lawyer and the judge.

    “I realized I am no different from other petitioners even though I am the owner of a hotel. I decided I needed to use unusual methods to get justice,” said Chen.

    On June 9, Chen followed Zhao Minghua in his car. At around 6 p.m. Zhao’s car, carrying five people, went to the Shanghai Hengshan Resort. They entered a private karaoke room, Diamond No.1, and shortly after a dozen young girls joined them inside. Near 11 p.m., Zhao and the others left the KTV room and went to their hotel rooms followed by five young girls.

    Chen filmed the whole process, but the pictures taken by his miniature camera weren’t clear because to avoid being seen Chen had to stay far back from the rooms. Three days later, Chen returned to the resort and by pretending to the security guards that he had lost something and asked to see the hotel’s surveillance footage.

    Among the gadgets used to secretly collect evidence, Chen’s favorite is a pair of miniature cameras mounted onto glasses, which he used to take photos of the footage on the hotel’s security cameras. In total he collected 30 hours of footage while following Zhao Minghua.

    Chen hired people to edit the footage into an eight-minute clip, showing the corruption and use of prostitutes by Zhao and others. On Aug. 1, Chen posted the video online through his microblog, instantly it received tens of thousands of hits.

    World of the judge

    Chen spent all of his free time in 2013 following the judge.

    Zhao left his office at around 5 p.m. everyday to meet people, so every two days Chen would wait at the gate of the court to follow him. At the weekends Chen waited outside Zhao’s home.

    Chen followed Zhao in his car. Being careful to keep his distance, occasionally he changed to a motorcycle for fear of being suspected.

    “Sometimes I lost him, but it didn’t matter because I had all the time in the world to wait for my revenge,” Chen said.

    Chen found that Zhao owned at least four properties, including two apartments worth 5 million yuan each.

    “Zhao’s wife is a housewife, so with his salary alone it is impossible for Zhao to afford these apartments,” Chen said.

    During the 2013 Spring Festival, Chen discovered Zhao’s secrete relationship with a woman when Zhao saw her off at the railway station, but Chen decided to stop following the “mistress” because “the evidence wasn’t fatal.”

    Chen found the judges liked to patronize night clubs and karaoke bars. Every time Zhao and the others left these places, Chen would go to the reception, pretending to be a member of Zhao’s group Chen would then check the bills.

    “You can’t imagine the extravagance,” Chen said. “On one dinner alone they spent tens of thousands yuan.”

    I’m no-hero

    On Aug. 6, Shanghai dismissed Zhao Minghua from his post as deputy chief of the No. 1 civil court. The other three judges were either sacked or removed from their posts.

    Whistleblower Chen is regarded as a “hero of petitioners” by Shanghai residents and online netizens. Some praise Chen’s wisdom, but others thought Chen’s way of collecting evidence through stalking and deception infringed on people’s rights.

    “He is a mean person,” Gu Xiangguo said in an interview. Gu insisted there wasn’t any problem with his lawsuit.

    “I got familiar with Chen through his wife but my friends warned me to keep evidence of all our business arrangements. I didn’t expect him to behave like this,” said Gu.

    Chen firmly believes he was betrayed by the court, but because of the deceptive way he found justice, he doesn’t want others to follow in his steps. “I am no-hero. I am just a petitioner who was cornered and sought revenge my own way,” he said.

    (Han Ximin)

    “I am no-hero. I am just a petitioner who was cornered and sought revenge my own way.”

    — Chen Yuxian