TechFlow news, on October 24, the Tongliang People's Court in Chongqing concluded a case involving helping criminals transfer funds overseas. The case involved over 2.25 billion yuan, with a total of 21 individuals sentenced.
From November 2020 to late April 2021, defendants Jiang and Zheng, along with 19 other members, clearly divided responsibilities and, according to agreements with their upstream partners, collected Tether coins obtained by upstream criminals through online fraud and online gambling activities via offline methods. Subsequently, they sold these cryptocurrencies on virtual currency trading platforms at prices significantly higher than market rates.
The criminal group also employed various concealment tactics, fabricating excuses such as withdrawing project funds or migrant workers' wages. They then went to bank counters across multiple provinces and cities including Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shanghai, withdrawing cash amounts ranging from several hundred thousand to several million yuan per transaction. Afterwards, they packed the cash into suitcases, backpacks, and other luggage, flew to locations in Fujian Province such as Xiamen and Anxi, and delivered the money to designated recipients arranged by their superiors, with each delivery amounting from tens of millions to tens of millions of yuan.
By the time of the case's discovery, this group had cumulatively transferred over 2.25 billion yuan RMB for overseas individuals using this method, earning illicit profits totaling more than 22.62 million yuan RMB.
The Tongliang court determined during its trial that Jiang and others, through abnormally high-priced and unconventional cryptocurrency transactions, were aware that these digital currencies likely originated from criminal proceeds, yet still provided bank accounts and cryptocurrency transaction services to cash out and transfer the illicit funds.
Therefore, the court ruled that they were guilty of concealing and hiding criminal proceeds and income derived therefrom. Jiang was sentenced to six years and three months in prison, along with a fine of 500,000 yuan; Zheng was sentenced to six years in prison, along with a fine of 500,000 yuan; and 19 others, including Qin, received fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year to two years and six months, along with corresponding fines.
