A school logistics manager in Ningbo, along with a property management cleaning supervisor, orchestrated a scheme that lasted more than two years by inventing seven fictional cleaner positions to embezzle company funds. The fraud, which involved falsified attendance records and regular salary disbursements to non-existent employees, was ultimately uncovered when real cleaning staff noticed they had several "colleagues" who never showed up for work. Despite the perpetrators returning all illicit gains after their arrest, they still received criminal sentences.
In June 2026, the Yinzhou District People's Procuratorate filed public charges against Li and Mao. By early July of the same year, the Yinzhou District People's Court convicted Li to one year of imprisonment and Mao to nine months of imprisonment with a one-year and two-month probation period, both found guilty of职务侵占罪 (crime of job occupation).
Li had been serving as the logistics manager at a school in Ningbo, responsible for supervising and evaluating the property management company's services, while Mao worked as the cleaning manager for that contracted property firm. After becoming familiar with each other through daily work interactions, the two began conspiring in early 2021 to exploit systemic loopholes for personal gain.
As logistics manager, Li held the authority to sign off on attendance sheets and payroll confirmations submitted by the property company. Only after his signature would the school's finance department release property management fees, including cleaning wages, to the property company's account, which would then distribute payments to individual bank cards. Recognizing that high turnover among cleaning staff made it easy to inflate numbers without detection, Li teamed up with Mao to execute their fraudulent plan.
Li used identification documents belonging to relatives and friends to create seven fictional cleaner identities. Mao was responsible for signing fake labor agreements with the property company and generating falsified clock-in records in the attendance system for these "shadow employees." Li leveraged his approval authority to clear the bogus attendance and payroll documentation, allowing the school finance department to issue monthly wages without question. The salary cards opened under the relatives' names were entirely controlled by Li, who would withdraw the cash each month and divide the spoils privately with Mao.
Over the span of two years, the duo collectively embezzled more than 600,000 yuan from the school's property management budget. Their elaborate scheme began to unravel in September 2023 when on-campus cleaning staff noticed that several listed "colleagues" had never appeared at work yet still received salaries like themselves. Growing suspicious and feeling deeply wronged by the injustice, the workers reported the situation to school authorities.
The school's initial investigation incorrectly assumed the property company was solely responsible for the forgery and filed a civil lawsuit against it. However, during court proceedings, judges examining the flow of funds discovered that the falsely reported wages were actually being funneled into bank accounts controlled by Li. At this point, the insider's identity was exposed, and the school immediately filed a criminal complaint.
In June 2026, public security authorities transferred the case to the Yinzhou District People's Procuratorate for review and prosecution. After examining bank transaction records, phony labor agreements, and other evidence, prosecutors determined that Li, as a school logistics supervisor, had unlawfully appropriated the institution's property by collaborating with Mao and abusing his signature and approval authority. Both individuals were found to constitute the crime of职务侵占罪, with Li as the principal offender. Although Mao was not a school employee, his deliberate collusion with Li to jointly commit the offense through Li's official position meant he was held criminally liable as an accomplice under the law.
Given that both defendants fully returned the stolen funds after being taken into custody, the court handed down the aforementioned sentences in accordance with legal provisions.