Author: Xiao Sa lawyer
In the process of handling cases involving cryptocurrency, lawyers from the Sajie team found that a fact that is difficult to ignore is that case handlers who have never been involved in cryptocurrency cases may regard cryptocurrency as a scourge; but once they have handled related cases, they will often start to learn relevant knowledge, and will rush to handle cryptocurrency cases when they appear, and some even choose to take the initiative to find cases...
So, can cryptocurrency be used for bribery? If state officials take advantage of the characteristics of crypto assets that are difficult to regulate, easy to transfer, and have huge value to accept bribes, can it be considered a traditional duty crime such as bribery when it is clear in my country that cryptocurrency is not legal tender?
Today, Sister Sa’s team will talk to you about the use of cryptocurrencies to commit official crimes.
The official who accepted 6,000 bitcoins in bribes was lucky to have committed the crime early
As mentioned earlier, since the technical characteristics of cryptocurrency itself make it difficult to investigate and control, it is naturally an extremely convenient tool for money laundering and asset transfer. In theory, it can also be used for official crimes such as bribery and corruption.
However, in judicial practice, there have been very few cases of bribery or duty-related crimes involving cryptocurrencies exposed. Sister Sa’s team believes that on the one hand, this may be because cryptocurrencies themselves have certain technical barriers to use, making it "inconvenient" for most leading cadres to use; on the other hand, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum themselves fluctuate greatly. If one is unlucky, it is embarrassing that the coins given to the "leader" depreciate sharply.
However, in the history of the development of encrypted assets in my country, there is a very well-known "pioneer": Xiao Yi, former vice chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial CPPCC and secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee. It is rumored that he accepted bribes of up to 6,000 bitcoins.
From 2017 to 2021, Xiao Yi used his power as the secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee to get acquainted with Lin, the actual controller of Genesis Technology Co., Ltd. and a big shot in the cryptocurrency circle, and carried out a large wave of power monetization. Specifically, Xiao Yi used his power to introduce Genesis Technology Co., Ltd. controlled by Lin as a key enterprise in Fuzhou, claiming to "build the largest single data center in Asia", but in fact he acquiesced to Genesis Technology Co., Ltd. secretly building a huge "mine" in Fuzhou for Bitcoin mining. Not only that, Xiao Yi also provided Genesis Technology Co., Ltd. with a large amount of financial subsidies, financial support and, most importantly, electricity guarantees.
Lin of course reciprocated by "giving" a large amount of bitcoins (rumored to be about 6,000) produced by mining to Xiao Yi. During the first trial, it was found that Xiao Yi had accepted bribes of up to 125 million yuan. Based on this, on August 22, 2023, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province publicly sentenced Xiao Yi, former member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, to life imprisonment for the crime of accepting bribes. Unfortunately, the details of Xiao Yi's bribery cannot be seen from public channels in this case, and it is only mentioned that "illegally accepting property totaling more than 125 million yuan."
So why did the Sajie team say that it was a good thing that the case was sentenced early? According to Article 388 of the Criminal Law of my country [Crime of Accepting Bribery], if the amount of bribes is more than 3 million yuan and causes particularly serious losses to the interests of the state and the people, the death penalty can be imposed. Assuming that Zeng Yi did accept 6,000 bitcoins, according to today's market price, the amount of bribes he received has exceeded 200 million yuan. If the price continues to rise, it is likely to exceed 1 billion in the future.
It is generally believed in judicial practice that 1 billion is the "lifeline" for bribery cases involving public officials in my country, taking two recent cases as examples.
It can be seen that if crypto assets continue to appreciate and Xiao Yi continues to accept cryptocurrencies on a large scale after the appreciation, then the amount of bribes he received may be extremely high, even touching the "life and death line."
Does accepting only cryptocurrencies as gifts constitute bribery in our country?
Although there are rumors that a large part of the bribes received by Xiao Yi were crypto assets, the exact information cannot be directly found from public channels. Therefore, we need to seriously discuss a question: If state officials only accept cryptocurrencies as gifts, does it constitute the crime of bribery in our country?
This first requires solving a problem: Does cryptocurrency have criminal property attributes?
From the current judicial practice, Sister Sa’s team believes that cryptocurrency has the attributes of property under criminal law and can become the object of property crime.
According to the Supreme People’s Court’s Criminal Trial Reference No. 138 [No. 1569] Zhang’s robbery case, the Supreme Court believes that property includes property and property interests. Whether cryptocurrency has property attributes in the sense of criminal law depends on whether it has the characteristics of property in criminal law, namely, management possibility, transfer possibility, and value.
(1) Cryptocurrency: holders possess, control and manage cryptocurrencies through passwords and secret keys, which have the possibility of management;
(2) Cryptocurrency can be bought, sold, circulated and exchanged between different entities through trading platforms, and has the possibility of transfer;
(3) The acquisition of cryptocurrency requires the payment of corresponding labor or costs and has value (including transaction value and applicable value).
Therefore, virtual currency has the general characteristics of criminal property, has criminal property attributes, and is a kind of "property" in the sense of criminal law.
So, does cryptocurrency meet the definition of “property” as stipulated by law in the field of job-related crimes? The Sajie team believes that in judicial practice, it is likely to be interpreted as a kind of “property interest”.
In practice, my country has a very broad definition of "property" in official crimes. Simply put, anything valuable can be considered "property" in official crimes. According to Article 12 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Corruption and Bribery", "property" in bribery crimes includes money, articles and property interests. Property interests include material interests that can be converted into money, such as house decoration, debt relief, etc., as well as other interests that require payment of money, such as membership services, travel, etc.
Therefore, although there are currently no cases of bribery using cryptocurrencies in practice that have been seen through public channels (it is rumored that there have been some undisclosed cases involving public security officials), we believe that crypto assets cannot be a shield for duty crimes, and the use of crypto assets as a tool to transfer benefits to state officials may constitute the crime of bribery.
Final Thoughts
With the popularity and expansion of the scope of application of cryptocurrency, its role in job-related crimes has become increasingly prominent. The anonymity and global circulation of cryptocurrency make it a tool for some lawless elements to bribe and launder money. Although Chinese law clearly stipulates that cryptocurrency is not legal tender, its property attributes and value make it the object of property crime in judicial practice, and thus can constitute job-related crimes.
In short, Sister Sa’s team reminds everyone that encrypted assets are not a shield for official crimes. Truth will come to light sooner or later. Even the most covert means cannot leave no traces. Today’s third-party blockchain companies are able to track more accurately through facial data. Do not blindly “trust” the anonymity function of blockchain.
