Judges, Johns, and Justice

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Ni Peiguo joked that he could be China’s best“business detective” after disclosing a sex scandal implicating a senior judge who had， according to Ni “exerted unfair influence” in a previous lawsuit against this Shanghai businessman. Ni’s response was to trail the judge for a year until he dug up some dirt.

He could never have imagined the windfall he would ultimately reap with his informal investigation. After trailing Zhao Minghua， deputy chief tribunal judge of the No.1 civil court of the Shanghai Higher People’s Court， for over a year， the 55-yearold Ni posted video footage online of Zhao and three of his colleagues with known sex workers at a local resort. All four men were dismissed， with Ni becoming something of a vigilante folk hero in the process.

The Feud

In 2009， Ni lost a contract dispute with a former employee， and was forced to pay 7 million yuan（US$1.1m） in compensation. From the outset， Ni claimed there had been conspiracy between Zhao Minghua， the presiding judge and the plaintiff. As a relative of the plaintiff worked in the Shanghai Higher People’s Court， Ni alleged that pressure had been exerted upon Zhao to rule against him.

After selling his house to settle the case， he began to plot his revenge. He first tried to petition the higher judicial authorities in Beijing by submitting paperwork to the Supreme People’s Court demanding a retrial， but received no reply.

After spending 300，000 yuan（US$49，020） on six visits to Beijing， he realized that his efforts to obtain justice via official channels were futile. Instead， he shifted his focus to the individuals who he blamed for ruining him.

In early 2012， he trailed the former plaintiff in the case back to their hometown. After talking to local residents， Ni discovered that Zhao Minghua was their brother-in-law. He soon found a picture of Zhao online， and began to loiter outside the judge’s office， trailing him from work to his home and， on weekdays， to luxurious dinners paid for by local lawyers hoping to curry favor with the courts.

Ni said he was able to identify Zhao’s hosts because he was helped by his friends in the police department who agreed to trace their license plates.

At one of the most extravagant dinners， Zhao was lavished with food and drink worth 20，000 yuan（US$$3，270） at an exclusive club. By posing as a fellow diner， Ni managed to snap a photo of the check on his cell phone.

Road to Revenge

Ni went about his mission like a genuine gumshoe. He changed his mode of transportation between four different cars and a motorcycle in order to avoid arousing suspicion. He would sit in his cars for hours， subsisting on bread and water， in order to avoid being seen. Only rarely would he lose his target in a crowd or in traffic， and would simply return home to play poker with friends and resume surveillance the following day.

Ni had pledged to devote three years to the scheme. But his first break came after the first twelve months， when he found that the judge seemed to have formed a friendship with a woman， visiting her at home several times a month， for hours at a time. He also found that Zhao owned at least four properties in Shanghai worth far more than his legal income could have paid for.

However， Ni still lacked a smoking gun. This duly arrived when he learned that Zhao and a lawyer had summoned some escorts to join them after a banquet. He called the police， but was surprised when Zhao and the lawyer disappeared before officers arrived on the scene. Convinced that someone in the police bureau had tipped Zhao off， Ni panicked， concerned that Zhao would， knowing he was being watched， refrain from further criminal activities.

However， another opportunity presented itself only two months later， when Ni followed Zhao to the popular Hengshan Resort in Shanghai’s Pudong District.

Ni used cigarettes to bribe resort security into showing him surveillance footage， claiming he had lost some belongings at the resort. He recorded the footage with a pinhole camera installed in his spectacles. Ni realized he had hit the motherlode miniskirt-clad young women were entering the judges’ rooms， with one emerging later tucking cash into her brassiere.

Ni employed a professional video editor to cut together eight minutes of footage that he eventually posted online early May. After the video went viral online， Zhao handed in the three-hour-long unedited original version to the Party’s discipline inspection commission in Shanghai.

Chen Xueming， chief judge of the No.1 civil tribunal of Shanghai Higher People’s Court， and Chen’s deputy Zhao Minghua， were both expelled from the Party and fired from their jobs， as was Ni Zhengwen（no relation to Ni Peiguo）， a member of the Court’s own discipline committee. Wang Guojun， deputy chief judge of another tribunal， was placed on a two-year probation.

Ni has pledged to seek a retrial for his own 2009 suit， believing that the removal of the man he blamed for his initial losses might guarantee him a fairer hearing. However， as some commentators have pointed out his own investigation has， if anything， proven that corruption goes further in China’s judiciary than a single bad apple.