Malicious collection of negative information about enterprises, disguised as soliciting property under the threat of exposure, committed 29 crimes, involving more than 800000 yuan... As media practitioners, Zhang and three others demanded "publicity sponsorship fees" under the guise of "investigating enterprise pollution", and went to Shandong, Henan and other places to extort and blackmail enterprises. After being prosecuted by the Yiyuan County Procuratorate in Shandong Province, the court sentenced Zhang and three others to imprisonment ranging from ten years to four years and six months for extortion and blackmail in the first instance, and imposed fines on each of them. After the verdict was made, Zhang and others appealed. Recently, the Intermediate Court of Zibo City ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original verdict. As soon as they met, they asked us for 50000 yuan. If they didn't give it, they would expose the company's pollution through the media or report it to government departments... "In January 2024, Mr. Tang, the head of the victimized company, told the Yiyuan County Prosecutor's Office about the process of their extortion and blackmail. Originally, since March 2019, Zhang and others have been using illegal channels to obtain information on the production and operation of enterprises, and have contacted the responsible persons of the enterprises under the pretext of "investigating enterprise pollution". Some companies are forced to pay money to settle the matter due to concerns about "exposure" affecting their reputation. Seeing how simple and easy it is to make money, Zhang and others have become even bolder, repeatedly demanding property from companies. In November 2022, Mr. Tang, who was extorted by Zhang and others, reported to the public security organs. In July 2023, the case was transferred to the Yiyuan County Procuratorate for review and prosecution. Is it normal public opinion supervision or extortion? Based on key facts, the prosecutor guided the public security organs to further supplement the investigation into Zhang and others' mobile chat records, bank account statements, and witness testimonies of the victimized enterprises. Prosecutor Cui Hui introduced that after investigation according to law, Zhang and others threatened the company's leaders through explicit, implicit, and other forms, and continued to post, forcing the company to pay "publicity sponsorship fees" before deleting the post, which was coercive in nature; After the company paid the so-called "promotional sponsorship fee", Zhang and others did not provide substantive services, which is not a normal transaction behavior required by the company; As media practitioners, Zhang and others knowingly released false information about the pollution of the environment by the company they intended to publish, but still took the initiative to force the company to pay for property, with the purpose of illegal profit. They have seriously damaged the reputation of the news industry and directly infringed on the property rights and interests of enterprises, causing hidden damage to the business environment through multiple rounds of testing, using the opportunity to hype and pressure, and attempting to put on the cloak of 'public opinion supervision'. This should be recognized as extortion and blackmail, "said Cui Hui. In order to accurately determine the amount of the crime and fix the losses suffered by the victimized enterprises, the prosecutor further sorted out the chat records between Zhang and others and the responsible persons of the victimized enterprises in various regions, visited and contacted the victimized enterprises on site, checked the losses one by one, and further supplemented and improved the relevant evidence. After being prosecuted by the Yiyuan County Procuratorate, the court made the above judgment in the first instance in December 2024. After Zhang and others appealed, the second instance court recently ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original verdict. (New Society)