Analysis of a Successful Defense Case for Not Guilty of Illegal Business Operations by a Lawyer

Recently, a case involving the crime of illegal business operations has attracted widespread attention. The parties involved were originally senior executives of a foreign company, who fell into economic difficulties due to company layoffs and started selling personal collections of audiovisual products online to make a living. However, this seemingly ordinary behavior violated the law and led to an investigation for illegal business operations.

The key to the case is that the parties involved purchased and sold audio-visual products from abroad without obtaining an import business license for publications, with sales amounting to over 700,000 yuan, far exceeding the criminal case filing standard. According to relevant regulations, in such cases, a sentence of more than 5 years of imprisonment is usually applicable.

As a defense attorney, facing such an unfavorable situation, the lawyer decided to adopt a not guilty defense strategy. The main defense points include:

1. The party does not have criminal intent subjectively and is only engaged in sales activities out of necessity for livelihood.

2. The parties lack awareness of relevant legal provisions and mistakenly believe that selling publicly on e-commerce platforms is a legal act.

3. The parties sell at the lowest price across the internet, reflecting a business philosophy of low margins and high sales rather than seeking exorbitant profits.

4. According to the principle of restraint in criminal law, although the behavior of the parties may be improper, if the social harmfulness is limited, it should not be considered a crime.

5. From the perspective of serving the people through justice, simple convictions and punishments may lead to more social problems, which is inconsistent with the concept of judicial fairness.

After multiple rounds of communication with the lawyer and the submission of a legal opinion, the prosecutor's office ultimately made a decision not to prosecute and returned the case to the public security bureau for withdrawal. This result fully reflects the fairness and justice of the law and demonstrates the important value of criminal defense.

This case enlightens us that in criminal cases, we cannot simply categorize people into "good" and "bad"; instead, we should rationally analyze the situation and uphold everyone's legal rights through legal procedures. The responsibility of a criminal lawyer is not only to win the case but also to promote judicial fairness and reduce the occurrence of wrongful convictions.