curator

Recently, a first-instance verdict was announced in a case of concealing and hiding criminal proceeds, which was prosecuted by the People's Procuratorate of Yuetang District, Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, China. A new type of money laundering chain, disguised as a Maotai liquor transaction and using virtual currency as a channel, was completely dismantled, involving an amount of over 6.84 million yuan, with all 8 defendants sentenced. The gang had clear divisions of labor and strong concealment.Chen connected with upstream sources through overseas encrypted communication software, received telecom fraud proceeds, and contacted "U merchants" to complete the exchange and circulation of virtual currency; Xie was responsible for providing tools for the crime and keeping track of financial details; Huang used Maotai liquor trading as a cover to disguise the trajectory of the transfer of criminal proceeds with real transaction shells; the remaining members assisted with fund settlement and information transmission. The gang used fake Maotai liquor transactions as the "cleaning" stage, disguising overseas fraud proceeds as legitimate business income, converting them into virtual currency to return to upstream, and taking an illegal commission of 8% for each "cleaning."In December 2023, with a report from a victim, this black and gray industrial chain hidden under the guise of liquor trading surfaced. After the incident, the People's Procuratorate of Yuetang District intervened in the investigation early, guiding the public security organs to sort through nearly 20 million yuan in fund flows and massive electronic data, achieving a full-chain crackdown and comprehensive evidence collection. The court ultimately sentenced Xie and 7 other principal and accomplice offenders to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 2 to 6 years for the crime of concealing and hiding criminal proceeds; the relatively minor offender Liang was sentenced to 1 year in prison with 1 year of probation.

The Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ying Yong, delivered the work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate at the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress, in which he pointed out to strengthen anti-money laundering efforts, prosecuting 3,259 individuals for money laundering crimes using virtual currencies and underground banks. He also emphasized the legal punishment of telecom and internet fraud crimes, prosecuting 69,000 individuals.

According to the official account of the Shenzhen People's Procuratorate, recently, the Shenzhen People's Procuratorate of Guangdong Province, after legal review, prosecuted defendants Sui Guangyi, Ma Xiaoqiu, and 30 others for committing illegal fundraising crimes using Shenzhen Dingyifeng Asset Management Co., Ltd., Hong Kong Dingyifeng International Holdings Group Co., Ltd., and their affiliated companies in Shenzhen and other locations.According to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and the Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, they were prosecuted for crimes including fundraising fraud, illegal absorption of public deposits, money laundering, embezzlement, smuggling across national (border) boundaries, and providing false certification documents to the Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.Previous reports indicated that the subjects involved in the case were suspected of engaging in illegal financial activities by issuing fictitious financial products and "DDO digital options," among other methods.

According to Xinhua News Agency, at the national procurators' meeting held in Beijing, the Supreme People's Procuratorate made arrangements to fully utilize the power of the rule of law to serve high-quality development and other aspects. The Supreme Procuratorate requires that procuratorial organs must legally safeguard economic and financial security, severely punish serious economic crimes, and promote the creation of a law-based business environment.The Supreme Procuratorate demands strict punishment for crimes such as smuggling and exporting strategic minerals to safeguard national strategic interests; in conjunction with the Financial Regulatory Administration and others, legally govern the illegal intermediary chaos in the financial sector, severely punish illegal fundraising, financial fraud, and other crimes, and comprehensively combat the financial "black and gray industries," ensuring the stable operation of finance and protecting the property safety of the people; increase efforts in anti-money laundering work, focusing on punishing crimes that utilize underground banks and virtual currency for money laundering. The Supreme Procuratorate proposed to deepen the rule of law construction in the capital market in conjunction with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, improve the mechanism for stationed securities procuratorial work, and strictly punish securities crimes such as financial fraud and market manipulation to maintain the safety of the capital market.

According to the disclosure from the Xiamen Procuratorate's official account, a salesperson from a certain distribution company in Fujian incurred huge debts due to involvement in virtual currency investments and began embezzling funds from spring 2024.The employee unauthorizedly replaced the company's public payment code with a personal WeChat payment code and bank account, guiding clients to transfer educational material subscription payments directly into their personal account. The report shows that the employee embezzled over 1.53 million yuan from the company and invested all related funds into Bitcoin and other virtual currencies for trading, attempting to profit through speculation, but ultimately lost all the funds. The Chang'an District Procuratorate has prosecuted them for embezzlement, and the court sentenced them to two years and three months in prison, along with a fine.

The People's Procuratorate of Pudong New District, Shanghai, disclosed a case involving an illegal industry chain that queries and sells citizens' location information. The individuals involved settled through the exchange of virtual currency, profiting illegally from it.Judicial appraisal shows that the illegally queried location information amounts to over 1,000 entries, with a total illegal profit of approximately 1.17 million yuan. Currently, the related individuals have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from three years and six months to one year, with fines ranging from 500,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan.

The People's Procuratorate of Pudong New District, Shanghai, has disclosed a case involving an illegal industry chain for querying and selling citizens' location information.The individuals involved settled through the exchange of virtual currency, profiting illegally. Judicial identification shows that over 1,000 pieces of illegally queried location information were involved, with a total illegal profit amounting to approximately 1.17 million yuan. Currently, the relevant personnel have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from three years and six months to one year, with fines ranging from 500,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan.

According to the disclosure from the Shanghai Procuratorial WeChat official account, the Shanghai Baoshan District Procuratorate, in handling a case of occupational crime, successfully initiated supervision on 24 cases involving 24 individuals through a penetrating review of funds, tracking the flow of funds. Prosecutors stated that the number of accounts involved in the underground money laundering gang was numerous, making the case very challenging, with a massive scale of financial transactions and a money laundering amount reaching 1.8 billion yuan. Ultimately, through pursuit and prosecution, they cracked down on money laundering activities that utilized virtual currency for cross-border transfer of illicit funds.In response to new and complex money laundering crimes such as underground money houses and virtual currencies, the Baoshan District Procuratorate guided public security agencies to penetrate fund accounts, clarify the sources and destinations of funds, secure electronic data, and make precise and effective accusations, fully ensuring the quality and effectiveness of the investigation and handling of money laundering cases.

ChainCatcher News, China's Chief Prosecutor and the Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ying Yong, pointed out in his keynote speech at the 15th China-ASEAN Chief Prosecutors' Conference held in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that crimes such as money laundering and bribery using virtual currencies and virtual assets are characterized by concealment, deception, and complexity, making investigation and evidence collection difficult, fact determination challenging, and fund recovery hard, which brings new challenges to combating and governance, seriously harming the property security of citizens in various countries and severely jeopardizing the financial security and social stability of nations.Strengthening international cooperation in anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, and fund recovery in the digital age has become an important consensus in the current international community.

ChainCatcher news, the official website of the Supreme People's Procuratorate has announced a case involving the fabrication of false national project implementation for fraud related to virtual currency. The suspects attracted members to participate by posting promotional information on social media, holding online meetings to explain the benefits of the project, and within just six months, they attracted over 1,900 participants nationwide. Members participating in the project were required to convert RMB into USDT for recharge and transfer on the software.According to the judicial accounting appraisal of electronic data by the Huimin County Procuratorate in Shandong Province, the suspects defrauded over 6 million yuan, and they were prosecuted for fraud. The defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for three years and six months to three years.

ChainCatcher news, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has released the "Announcement on the Establishment of Research Topics for the Application of Procuratorial Theory in 2025." In 2025, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has established 234 research topics related to the application of procuratorial theory, among which 10 are related to virtual currency, including: "Research on the Disposal Path of Criminal Involved Virtual Currency," "Research on the Regulation of Virtual Currency Crimes and Judicial Disposal Issues," "Research on Criminal Legal Risks and Response Strategies under the Rapid Development of Virtual Currency," "Research on the Legal Attributes of Virtual Currency and Judicial Disposal Paths," "Research on Practical Issues in Criminal Justice Disposal of Involved Virtual Currency," "Research on Evidence Review in Virtual Currency Cases," "Research on the Application of Criminal Law to Virtual Currency Crimes," "Research on Improving the Disposal and Procuratorial Supervision Mechanism for Virtual Currency," "Dilemmas in the Criminal Law Regulation of Virtual Currency Crimes and System Improvement," and "Research on the Application of Law to Virtual Currency."

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, veteran Ethereum advocate William Mougayar will serve as the curator and editor of the Ethereum Market Research Center (EMRC), aiming to enhance Ethereum's visibility among institutional and professional audiences. The EMRC will integrate original research, curated materials, industry insights, and real-time news to fill the educational communication gap. Mougayar pointed out that while Ethereum holds a dominant market position, its communication efforts are not as strong as those of competing chains like Solana, and the EMRC will help reshape and unify ecosystem information.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Paper, the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Ying Yong, delivered the work report of the Supreme Procuratorate at the third session of the 14th National People's Congress. In 2024, the procuratorial organs prosecuted 825 individuals for securities-related crimes such as financial fraud and insider trading, and 3,032 individuals for money laundering crimes involving the use of "virtual currency" to transfer criminal proceeds.

ChainCatcher news, according to Caixin, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced today the situation of the comprehensive deepening of procuratorial reform work in 2024. It mentioned that relevant departments will collaborate to formulate judicial interpretations, improve judicial norms for punishing criminal cases related to securities and futures, money laundering, and harming tax collection and management, and more effectively punish crimes such as illegally transferring assets abroad using virtual currencies, tax evasion, and fraudulently obtaining export tax refunds.Improve the equal protection mechanism for various types of business entities, and legally supervise and correct the use of criminal means to intervene in economic disputes, illegal sealing, confiscation, and freezing of property, especially issues related to illegal cross-regional law enforcement and profit-driven law enforcement. Enhance the working mechanism of the Supreme People's Procuratorate stationed at the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and strengthen the coordination and cooperation between financial regulatory enforcement and judicial work.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Du Xueyi, director of the Economic Crime Prosecution Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stated during a guest appearance on the Supreme Procuratorate's director interview event on February 13 that the current situation of telecom network fraud crimes is still severe and complex, with a high incidence.First, the cross-border and monopolistic nature of fraud groups has emerged, with criminals setting up "industrial parks" and "technology parks" abroad, managing and controlling through means such as providing guarantees and armed protection, taking a cut or charging fees to obtain illicit funds, forming large criminal organizations.Second, the methods of fraud are increasingly diverse and complex, with combinations such as "pig butchering + false investment," "gambling fraud," and "fraud and extortion," which are more deceptive and have led to serious violent crimes such as intentional injury.Third, the modules of black industry crimes are becoming more stable, with criminal tools and software being simple and easy to use, resulting in a broader population being drawn into criminal activities. Fourth, the channels for funds are intertwined and concealed, with virtual currency "money laundering" becoming a mainstream method, helping criminals to transfer fraudulent funds in "small amounts and multiple transactions," making it difficult to trace back.

ChainCatcher news, according to China's Legal Daily, to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party, and to fully leverage the role of the rule of law in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, a seminar on "Disposal of Virtual Currency Involved in Cases" was held in Beijing on January 19, organized by the Law School of Renmin University of China. Nearly 60 participants attended the meeting, including representatives from the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, as well as legal theorists, lawyers, and business representatives.During the meeting, Wang Tuo, head of the Financial Case Handling Team of the Fourth Procuratorial Department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stated:We must face history and reality, and cannot ignore the decisive role of regulatory documents in curbing speculative behavior in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, we should accelerate top-level design to address various issues related to virtual currency crimes.We need to strengthen the coordination between criminal justice and administrative regulation, adhering to the principle of unified legal order.We should strive to reach a consensus on the nature of virtual currencies, especially ensuring that civil and criminal identifications do not contradict each other.We need to establish scientifically reasonable procedural norms to prevent various risks in judicial disposal.We should emphasize the complementary relationship between technology and case handling.