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From December 2022 to September 2023, Ma Xiaoqin used her position to embezzle and steal more than 2.2 million yuan of public funds from the company on multiple occasions. During the short journey of just a few hours from Xichang to Leibo, Ma Xiaoqin lost more than 100,000 yuan in online gambling.

On July 16, the WeChat official account of the Sichuan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, "Clean Sichuan", published an article disclosing the details of the corruption of Ma Xiaoqin, the former accountant of the People's Government of Shanlinggang Township, Leibo County, Liangshan. In April 2024, Ma Xiaoqin was sentenced to seven years and ten months in prison and fined RMB 300,000 for the crime of embezzlement.

Ma Xiaoqin, former accountant of the People's Government of Shanlinggang Township, Leibo County, was sentenced for embezzling and stealing public funds.

Won the title of "Excellent Township Financial Personnel"

Fearing that his crime would be exposed, he was anxious and turned himself in.

"I was afraid that I would be discovered for embezzling public funds, afraid of losing my lover, children, and job, afraid of losing everything. I felt anxious and desperate every day..." In October 2023, after several painful and difficult struggles, Ma Xiaoqin finally gave up escaping and walked into the Leibao County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision to surrender.

Ma Xiaoqin, female, was born in March 1983 in Yanyuan, Sichuan. She started working in February 2011 and was an accountant of the People's Government of Shanlinggang Township, Leibo County. In October 2023, Ma Xiaoqin was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and took the initiative to surrender and accept the disciplinary review and supervision investigation of the Leibo County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision. In January 2024, Ma Xiaoqin was expelled from the Party and removed from public office for serious violations of Party discipline, violations of duty and suspected of corruption.

For Ma Xiaoqin, it took her many years to go from nothing to something, but it took her less than a year to go from something to nothing. Before the age of 33, she was diligent and hardworking, and obtained a college diploma and an accounting qualification certificate through self-study. At the age of 33, Ma Xiaoqin passed the public recruitment examination and became an accountant in the Shanlinggang Township Government of Leibo County. After the age of 33, Ma Xiaoqin suddenly lost her life goals, became spiritually empty, and her thoughts slipped. She fell into online gambling and couldn't extricate herself. She owed a huge gambling debt and eventually embarked on a road of no return.

Ma Xiaoqin worked diligently when she first arrived at Shanlinggang Township. With her good performance, she was awarded titles such as "Excellent Township Financial Personnel". However, the joy of success, the freshness of work, and the recognition of others did not last long for her. Instead, she was confused in life, spiritually empty, and emotionally depressed.

Just when Ma Xiaoqin was struggling to find an outlet for her emotions, she discovered the "new world" of paid card games.

Addicted to online gambling and borrowing money from everywhere

Her mother used her savings over the years to help her pay off her gambling debts

One weekend at the end of 2016, Ma Xiaoqin was invited by someone to play the card game "Upgrade", which added some different "fun" to her life. "It was very novel to play cards for the first time. I spent a whole day without realizing it, and I even won a little in the end." The excitement of winning and losing gave Ma Xiaoqin's numb nerves a new excitement point, and she soon became addicted. Since then, she has been constantly trying new ways to play cards, such as Landlord, Mahjong, and "Bullfighting"...

Gradually, Ma Xiaoqin's addiction to playing cards grew stronger and stronger. She could no longer be satisfied with the weekend card games, so she began to try playing "one-yuan mahjong" with her friends online. In 2019, the public security organs vigorously cracked down on online gambling, and her friends stayed away from online gambling, but Ma Xiaoqin was like a kite with a broken string, at a loss. In order to seek new spiritual sustenance, she began to search for various gambling apps such as "playing mahjong" and "fighting bulls" on the Internet. She was unstoppable and even became "obsessed": she would pick up her phone whenever she had free time, and even squeeze out time to play a few games during work hours, and even stay up all night on weekends to play.

Ma Xiaoqin, who seeks excitement, attempts to achieve "wealth freedom" through online gambling. The picture shows a gambling diagram (the picture and text are unrelated)

"Free trial", "Sign up to get cash", "Top up 100 and get 100 free"... Ma Xiaoqin was overwhelmed by all kinds of advertisements. At this time, she was becoming increasingly alienated from her colleagues and friends. She participated in online gambling not only to kill time, but also to seek excitement and achieve "financial freedom" through online gambling. Soon, she was spending more than she earned, but she did not stop and wanted to win back her capital through gambling.

In order to collect money for gambling, Ma Xiaoqin kept swiping her credit card or borrowing money from friends and colleagues, and later took out small loans through online platforms... In 2022, Ma Xiaoqin owed more than 300,000 yuan in gambling debts at one time, and finally confessed to her family that she was involved in online gambling. After hearing about this, her mother took out her savings over the years to help her pay off her gambling debts, and earnestly told her to cherish her work and life and not to indulge in it anymore.

"It was as if an invisible hand was pulling me to gamble. I was afraid of being discovered by my family, so I would play a few rounds in the bathroom. I didn't know whether I was unwilling or just liked gambling..." 300,000, 600,000... her mother, husband, and in-laws borrowed money from everywhere to help her pay off her debts. Ma Xiaoqin vowed that she would never gamble online again, but she only lasted two or three months each time before picking up her phone again.

Embezzled and stole more than 2.2 million yuan of public funds

Sentenced to seven years and ten months for corruption

After breaking her promise to her relatives and friends, Ma Xiaoqin reached out to the company's public funds. "The first time I used IOUs to embezzle the first 45,000 yuan of public funds to repay online loans, but no one discovered it until I returned the money. I suddenly felt that this money was too easy to take!" Ma Xiaoqin ignorantly thought that there would be no big problem if she "borrowed" it first and then returned it. "If it is discovered, it will at most be an illegal operation."

Why is public money so easily misappropriated? In Shanlinggang Township Government, the accountant, cashier and person in charge each hold a UK digital certificate, and all three digital certificates must be approved before funds can be disbursed. However, the relevant personnel have no sense of discipline and responsibility, and put all three digital certificates in the finance office. "When funds need to be disbursed, if the cashier or person in charge is not in the office, just make a phone call to clarify, and the digital certificate can be used to handle the business."

In this way, Ma Xiaoqin continued to embezzle and steal public funds by writing IOUs, falsely increasing the number of people making payments, and listing fictitious payment items. She paid back the money she won from online gambling, and continued to falsify accounts when she lost, as if she was freely withdrawing public funds as if they were her own. Due to the lack of supervision, she succeeded repeatedly without being detected.

Ma Xiaoqin constantly embezzled and stole public funds by writing IOUs, inflating the number of people making payments, and listing fictitious payment items. The picture shows a cartoon of embezzlement of public funds (the picture and the text are unrelated)

"Accountant Ma, why haven't our village cadres' living allowances been issued yet?" In December 2022, when asked by others, Ma Xiaoqin, who had already withdrawn and lost all the village cadres' living allowances, panicked and decided to go to the bank to borrow money to make up for the village cadres' allowances. But before she could warm up the loan, she lost more than 100,000 yuan in online gambling on the way back to Leibo from Xichang in just a few hours.

After investigation, it was found that from December 2022 to September 2023, Ma Xiaoqin took advantage of her position to embezzle and steal more than 2.2 million yuan of public funds from the unit by falsely increasing the number of people who made payments, falsely listing payment items, and directly occupying the funds in the process of handling financial matters such as land acquisition compensation and project settlement funds. In April 2024, Ma Xiaoqin was sentenced to seven years and ten months in prison and fined RMB 300,000 for the crime of embezzlement. In addition, relevant personnel of the Shanlinggang Township Government have been filed for review and investigation due to issues such as improper performance of duties.

Zhang Dan, Red Star News reporter Jiang Long, compiled

Editor Guo Zhuang Responsible Editor Wei Kongming