A MAN holding several fake identities and forged documents was lucky to be employed as the legal director of a well-known enterprise in Shenzhen. His luck ran out, however, when he was caught and sued by the city procuratorate for overstepping his position and using counterfeit official materials.

In 2015, the company intended to hire a legal director who would be appointed to manage legal issues on behalf of the headquarters and its branch offices. It was then the unidentified man submitted his seemingly perfect resume.

According to his fake CV, the man graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law from a well-know university in China and passed the most competitive national judiciary examination. The man boasted a track record of professional certificates, experience of working as a registered lawyer and claimed to have partook in an array of notable legal training.

All of the certificates were stamped with seals that convinced the company that this man was the right person for the position.

The financial controller of the company, however, gradually noticed something amiss about the legal director’s behavior. For instance, the legal director always asked for funds from the finance department for business trips even if the legal issues were supposed to be resolved in Shenzhen.

After each business trip, the man would return piles of tickets and invoices to apply for reimbursement, but never returned any of the money he had borrowed in the first place. In total, he borrowed a few hundred thousand yuan from the finance department.

The man was also found asking for reimbursements with the invoice of prosecution expenses though the transactions should have been made through the company’s account rather than his own. The man said, however, he had to pay in advance with his own money due to urgent circumstances.

One day when the financial controller checked the invoices of charges from the courts, he found that the date on one of the voices was Sunday, which led to his suspicion about the legal director’s claims.

Compelled by his doubts, the financial controller went to the court and the bank shown on the invoice only to discover the invoice was forged and did not have any legal backing. The financial controller confirmed that all invoices were counterfeit and none of the lawsuits existed after going through all the invoices provided by the legal director.

The legal director was prosecuted on several charges involving overstepping his position, forging certificates issued by State departments and fabricating seals of public institutions.

(Zhang Qian)