When you see advertisements such as "Buy a TV set-top box and watch a large number of foreign programs without having to jump through the firewall" and "Buy once and enjoy free viewing for life", will you be tempted? From 2016 to 2021, Xu Li and others illegally sold more than 1.9 million set-top boxes that can receive overseas TV programs, with a sales amount of up to 700 million, knowing that my country has strict legal regulations on the introduction and broadcast of overseas TV and radio programs. Yu Yuan. On April 6, 2023, the illegal business case of Xu Li and others, which was prosecuted by the Huaiyin District Procuratorate of Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, was heard in court. On October 24, the court sentenced Xu Li to one year and eight months in prison and a fine of 20 million yuan for illegal business operations; Zhang Peng was sentenced to one year and three months in prison, suspended for two years, and fined 1 million yuan. ; Sentenced Shi Jie to six months in prison, suspended for one year, and fined 20,000 yuan.
You can watch overseas programs with this set-top box
Xu Li is from Fujian. One day in 2014, his son Xu Hua (who is still in criminal custody) brought back a set-top box from Hong Kong. What was different from the set-top boxes on the market was that this set-top box As long as the set-top box is connected to the TV, you can watch overseas TV programs.
"People are curious and always want to watch foreign TV programs for novelty. This business will definitely make a lot of money." Xu Li and Xu Hua hit it off and decided to start a set-top box business. With the idea of "making it bigger and stronger", the father and son used "Antuo" as the brand and established Antuo Global Company in Shishi, Fujian. At the same time, Xu Hua arranged for people to connect with Zhang Peng, the owner of a company in Guangdong that specializes in the production of set-top boxes, and the company would process and produce Antuo brand set-top boxes.
At first, there were only more than 50 foreign programs that could be watched through the set-top box, and the picture was unstable. In addition, the Antuo brand was not well-known, so the sales of the set-top box were not optimistic. In 2016, Xu Li met and recruited Li Bo (a fugitive from criminal detention) who had experience in studying in the United States and was familiar with Internet technology.
Li Bo established the "BMW" Internet team overseas. The team rented servers overseas and collected more than 1,000 TV signals through technical means. At the same time, during the production process, the mac address of the Antuo brand set-top box was entered into the overseas server, and purchased like this Users of Antuo brand set-top boxes can access the servers rented by Li Bo and others, and can watch more than 1,000 overseas programs.
At the same time, Xu Li relied on Li Bo's network resources for marketing, and posted advertisements in WeChat Moments and QQ groups. He also secretly sold set-top boxes on online shopping platforms under the guise of selling remote controls, data cables, power adapters, etc. With the increase in the number of programs and sales channels, the sales of Antuo brand set-top boxes have surged hundreds of times, with 280,000 units sold in 2016 alone.
establishes a huge sales network
In order to obtain more sales, product "upgrading" is put on the agenda. Li Bo contacted a software company and entered the mass-produced special MAC address into the Antuo brand set-top box. As a result, the sales of the set-top box increased year by year.
Antuo Global Company has recruited more than 40 people and established 6 departments including marketing department, art department, maintenance department, sales department, customer service department, and service department, forming a business model of "production-sales-delivery-after-sales maintenance". The team is getting bigger. Agents from all over the country came here because of the reputation and asked to be agents selling Antuo brand set-top boxes.
Agents from all over the country not only promote on the Internet, WeChat Moments, QQ groups and other online platforms, but also sell set-top boxes through their own physical stores. An omni-channel agent sales network covering online and offline has been formed. Xu Li and others set up a regulatory department to control the sales prices of agents in various places. Once agents are found to be selling set-top boxes at low prices, they will impose fines to avoid low-price sales.
Xu Li knew that his business was illegal, but the huge temptation of profits made him unwilling to give up. On the surface, he issued various regulations to stop domestic sales, but secretly allowed company staff and agents to trade secretly.
In 2020, Antuo Global Company issued regulations prohibiting dealers from selling Antuo brand set-top boxes into the country. However, the regulations were not strictly implemented. After receiving domestic orders, some agents directly sent the mailing information to the staff of Antuo Global. The staff turned a blind eye and immediately arranged for the mailing of the set-top box as long as the agent paid.
Xu Li also stipulates that domestic dealers are not allowed to sell Antuo brand set-top boxes on online shopping platforms, and can only be sold externally through WeChat Moments, QQ and other online methods. However, he privately arranged for company personnel to set up an online store, where he sold Antuo brand set-top boxes in the name of selling remote controls, data cables, power adapters, etc. At the same time, many dealers also paid for goods through the online store.
Among the more than 1,000 programs collected by Xu Li and others, a considerable part are pornographic programs. In order to avoid being investigated and punished, Xu Li and others set up the backend so that domestic purchasing users can only watch them by "circuiting the firewall". However, some agents have gained a large number of domestic users by providing sales methods such as "set-top boxes + 'circuit-wall' routers".
Paper cannot contain the fire after all
"I bought a set-top box from the seller Shi Jie, and when I was watching TV, I found that there were obscene videos in it. It was really unsightly." In July 2021, Huaiyin police received a call from citizen Xiao Zhang report. After identification by the Huai'an Municipal Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, the TV set-top box marked "Antuo Technology" purchased by Xiao Zhang was an illegal overseas TV network receiving device.
After combing through clues and collecting evidence, the public security organs determined that this was a major illegal business case involving set-top boxes, and finally targeted Xu Li's company headquarters in Shishi, Fujian, and Zhangpeng's production factory in Guangdong. On September 12, 2021, the public security organs carried out arrests in two places and arrested 7 people including Xu Li and Zhang Peng.
Some of the set-top boxes seized in this case.
"I feel very uneasy and have also thought about moving the company abroad." Xu Li explained that the reason why he put the company in China is because the company has established a complete production and sales network in China and moved abroad. It requires high costs. On the other hand, the TV programs they collect are protected by international copyright. Once discovered by other countries, he will face huge fines and severe criminal penalties.
After investigation, from 2016 to 2021, Xu Li purchased more than 1.9 million Antuo brand TV set-top boxes from Zhang Peng at a price of about 170 yuan per unit, and then sold them externally at a price of at least 500 yuan each. The amount amounted to more than 700 million yuan, Xu Li made a profit of more than 10 million yuan, and Zhang Peng made a profit of 3 million yuan. Agent Shi Jie sold 344 set-top boxes, with a sales volume of more than 210,000 yuan and a profit of 20,000 yuan. After
was brought to justice, all three people were able to truthfully confess their criminal facts, voluntarily plead guilty and accept punishment, and voluntarily withdraw their illegal gains. Regarding Xu Li and Zhang Peng's company employees, the procuratorial organ determined after review that they played a small role in the joint crime, only received a fixed salary, and were accessories. The crime was minor and they met the conditions for relative non-prosecution, so they issued a relative non-prosecution order against these people. Decide.
(The persons and companies involved in the case are pseudonyms)
Source: Procuratorate Daily·Der Spiegel
