According to ChainCatcher news and a report from Xiamen Evening News, a man stole virtual currency from others and converted it into more than 1.6 million yuan after suffering losses while helping a friend invest in futures. Recently, the Huli District Prosecutor's Office in Xiamen, China, reviewed and prosecuted this theft case.
In September 2021, the defendant Chen met the victim Hong through a friend's introduction. At that time, Hong had a strong interest in virtual currency investment, and Chen had some knowledge in this area. Hong entrusted Chen to assist with virtual currency investments and provided his account and login password.
In June 2022, Chen suffered losses while assisting a friend with futures investments and incurred debts. This led Chen to consider stealing virtual currency from Hong's account.
At the end of September 2022, Chen fabricated a story about the account being offline to deceive Hong into providing various verification codes. He then successfully changed the account login password and replaced the linked email with his own. At this point, Hong's account was under Chen's control.
Afterward, Chen repeatedly used the excuse of the account being offline to deceive Hong into providing real-time verification codes, continuously transferring the virtual currency from Hong's account into his own. He then quickly sold these virtual currencies for a profit of more than 1.6 million yuan and used all of it to repay personal debts.
In May 2024, Chen voluntarily went to the police station to surrender and honestly confessed to his crimes.
The Huli District Prosecutor's Office filed a public prosecution against Chen for theft. According to Article 264 of the Criminal Law, theft of public or private property, in particularly large amounts or with other particularly severe circumstances, is punishable by more than ten years of fixed-term imprisonment or life imprisonment, along with fines or confiscation of property.