China's Xiangyang City cracked a case of transferring illegal funds using cryptocurrency, and the defendant was sentenced to two years and six months to three years in prison.

BlockBeats News, August 7th. Recently, the Procuratorate of Baokang County, Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, China, filed a public prosecution. The local court sentenced five defendants, Yao, Yang, Liu (A), Qiao, Liu (B), to 2 years and 6 months to 3 years of imprisonment for the crime of using virtual currency to transfer illegal funds to conceal and disguise the proceeds of crime, and imposed fines ranging from 5,000 yuan to 18,000 yuan on each of them.

Starting in April 2024, Yang, Yao, Liu (A), and others formed a group chat through overseas messaging apps, knowingly that the upstream funds might be proceeds of illegal activities such as telecommunications fraud. They used Tether transactions to help the upstream transfer illegal crime funds. The group had clear division of labor: Yang was responsible for the money supply, Yao and Liu (A) coordinated with the upstream fraudsters to receive "cash-out" instructions, Qiao, Liu (B), and other "drivers" then went to designated locations to pick up the fraud-related funds. By repeatedly converting between virtual currency and fraud-related funds, they ultimately transferred the funds to the upstream fraudsters to conceal and disguise the illegal nature of the funds. Upon investigation, it was found that the group helped transfer 2.09 million yuan of fraud-related funds, with profits ranging from 10,000 to 90,000 yuan.

During the handling of the case, the prosecuting attorney used legal reasoning to persuade each suspect to voluntarily return the illegally obtained proceeds. Through various measures, over 1.5 million yuan of proceeds were successfully recovered, and after the judgment took effect, the recovered amount was proportionally returned to 17 victims of telecommunications fraud.

"From overseas encrypted communication apps to using virtual currency transactions to transfer illegal crime funds, from professional 'drivers' for cash-out to the complex flow of funds through multi-layered accounts, such criminal activities exhibit obvious characteristics of immediacy, chain-like operation, and hidden nature. The general public must protect their property and not be tempted by small gains to venture onto the path of illegal activities." reminded a relevant official from the Baokang County Procuratorate (Jímù News).