The crime of contract fraud refers to the criminal act of defrauding the other party's property by defrauding the other party with a relatively large amount in the process of signing and performing a contract, by falsifying the facts or concealing the truth.

    1. Object

    The object of this crime is the complex object, that is, the state's management order of economic contracts and the ownership of public and private property. The object of this crime is public and private property.

    The objective aspect

    The objective aspect of this crime is to defraud the other party of property by means of fictitious facts or concealing the truth in the process of signing and performing the contract, with a relatively large amount.

    1. First, according to Article 224 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, the fraudulent conduct of this crime is manifested in the following five forms:

    (1) Signing a contract with a fictitious entity or in the name of another person.

    (2) Guaranteed by forged, altered or voided bills or other false property certificates. The bills referred to here mainly refer to the financial instruments that can be used as security certificates, that is, bills of exchange, promissory notes and checks. The so-called other property rights certificates include land use right certificates, house ownership certificates and various valid certificates that can prove movable and immovable properties.

    (3) Without the actual ability to perform, the other party is tricked into continuing to sign and perform the contract by performing the small-sum contract first or partially performing the contract.

    (4) Escape after receiving the goods, payment, advance payment or guaranteed property from the other party.

    (5) Defrauding the property of the other party by other means. The other methods mentioned here refer to the use of the economic contract as a means to defraud the goods, payment, advance payment, or deposit agreed by the other party to be delivered by the other party in addition to the above-mentioned four methods used in the process of signing and performing the economic contract. and all other means for the purpose of reporting property. As long as the perpetrator commits one of the above-mentioned fraudulent acts, it can constitute this crime.

    2. Secondly, defrauding the other party's property must be a relatively large amount.

    The so-called large amount is based on illegal possession for the purpose of defrauding the property of the other party in the process of signing and performing the contract, and any one of the following circumstances shall be prosecuted:

    (1) Individuals defrauding public and private property with an amount ranging from RMB 5,000 to more than RMB 20,000;

    (2) The directly responsible person in charge of the unit and other directly responsible personnel commit fraud in the name of the unit, and the fraudulent income belongs to the unit, and the amount is more than 50,000 to 200,000 yuan.

    3. Main Elements

    The subject of this crime can be constituted by an individual or a unit. The individual committing this crime is the general subject, and the unit committing this crime is any unit.

    Fourth, the subjective aspect

    The subjective aspect of this crime is that it is directly intentional and has the purpose of illegally occupying the property of the other party.

    I. Contract Fraud and Civil Fraud in Contract Disputes

    In economic transactions, any contractual behavior with deceitful facts cannot be regarded as a crime. Civil fraud refers to an illegal act in which a party intentionally expresses his intentions by taking the untrue situation as true to make the other party fall into a misunderstanding in civil activities, thereby achieving, changing and eliminating certain civil legal relations. There are many similarities between civil fraud in contract disputes and the crime of contract fraud. For example, both of them arise in the process of civil communication, and both are expressed in the form of contracts, and the obligations stipulated in the contract are neither fulfilled nor fully fulfilled. Essential differences, such as different subjective purposes, different intentional content of actions, etc. Some scholars believe that the fundamental difference between the two lies in whether the behavior conforms to the criminal composition of the crime of contract fraud. If a positive conclusion is reached, the behavior constitutes the crime of contract fraud, and the conviction of the crime of contract fraud cannot be denied on the grounds that the behavior is civil fraud. Another view holds that the key difference between contract fraud and civil fraud is whether the perpetrator has the purpose of illegal possession. Because the civil law does not exclude the purpose of illegal possession from civil fraud, and in judicial practice, it is often more difficult to identify the subjective purpose of the actor than the objective behavior. A key issue in contract fraud.

    Each specific case has its own differences, and the definition of the purpose of illegal possession is theoretically impossible to make precise and unmistakable boundaries. In practice, the determination of the subjective purpose of the actor is generally examined from the following aspects: 1. Whether there is the ability to perform the contract when signing the contract; 2. Whether there is any deceit in the process of signing and performing the contract; 3. Whether there is any fraud after signing the contract Actual actions to perform the contract; 4. Willingness to assume responsibility for breach of contract after breach of contract; 5. Reasons for not performing the contract, etc.

    2. The crime of contract fraud and the crime of ordinary fraud

    There is a view that there is a certain co-opetitive relationship between the crime of contract fraud and the crime of fraud, and there are other views that the two are special and general. The difference between the crime of contract fraud and the crime of fraud is mainly in the object and objective aspects of the violation. One of the important differences is that the deceptive behavior of contract fraud occurs in the process of contract signing and performance, and it is fraudulent in the form of contracts. Therefore, how to understand and identify the contract has become the key to distinguish the two. The contract in the crime of contract fraud includes both written contracts and oral contracts, but the crime of contract fraud cannot be determined just by the presence of a contract. The contract should have the basic terms of the relevant provisions of the Contract Law, and the contract should involve market economy content. Contracts, based on unilateral contracts, gratuitous contracts, etc., the resulting fraud is not a crime of contract fraud, and should be identified as ordinary fraud.

    In practice, the use of contracts to defraud should be characterized as contract fraud or ordinary fraud, and generally should be investigated from the following three aspects: 1. In terms of behavior subjects, the criminal subject of contract fraud can be either a natural person or a unit, while ordinary fraud The subject of the crime can only be a natural person; 2. The nature of the contract, the contract in the crime of contract fraud should be a double-duty paid contract, and the perpetrator signs a single-service or gratuitous contract to commit fraud, which should be identified as ordinary fraud; 3. The perpetrator defrauded The time when the subjective intention is generated. In contract fraud, the perpetrator’s intention to defraud can be at the time of signing the contract or in the process of performing the contract. The perpetrator of ordinary fraud often first generates the intention of illegally occupying other people’s property before proceeding further. Its subjective intention is implemented through various fraudulent means.

    In addition, most of the various financial fraud crimes stipulated in the criminal law also use the form of economic contracts, and should be handled in accordance with the special provisions of the law when dealing with such cases.