Gansu, China 'U Business' sentenced for involvement in black and gray market USDT transactions, convicted of aiding and abetting crime and recovering illegal gains!

According to the official account of the Jinchang Intermediate People's Court, recently, the Yongchang Court in Gansu, China, ruled on two cases involving telecom fraud crimes, sentencing ten defendants to prison terms ranging from ten months to one year for aiding information network crime activities, with illegal gains of over 1.19 million yuan being recovered.

Reports indicate that since 2022, a certain Shen, for illegal profit, raised funds to purchase computers, IoT cards, and other equipment, recruited Li, Chen, and four others to join, and additionally recruited more than ten people to successively lease houses in places like Hefei, Anhui to establish a USDT (Tether) trading studio, and formed illegal over-the-counter trading groups via the Telegram app, buying low and selling high for profit.

During this period, the five men repeatedly took risks, knowing that the U coins they received came from online gambling, telecom fraud, and other black and gray market sources, yet they still helped telecom fraud criminals make payment settlements between USDT and Chinese yuan at high exchange rates. Meanwhile, Shen also contacted downstream coin merchants like Li to settle payments according to the payment methods specified by upstream criminals via Alipay, WeChat transfers, and cash deposits.

By the time of the incident, the defendants had collectively profited over 880,000 yuan, among which over 5.9 million yuan involved more than ten victims, including residents like Meng from Chengguan Town in Yongchang County, who were defrauded while participating in virtual currency investments and online order brushing. The funds were all transferred to accounts related to USDT trading used by Shen and others.

The court found that in this case, Shen and others used virtual currency trading activities to help telecom network fraudsters transfer funds, which had departed from mere virtual currency operations. Such behavior should be included as a key link in the comprehensive crackdown on telecom network fraud crimes, and those involved in the crime should be punished.