Gansu, China: "U Business" Sentenced for Involvement in Black and Gray Market USDT Transactions!

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, sentencing ten defendants to prison terms ranging from ten months to one year for the crime of assisting in criminal activities related to information networks, and effectively recovering over 1.19 million yuan in illegal gains.

Reports indicate that since 2022, a certain Shen, seeking illegal profits, raised funds to purchase computers, IoT cards, and other equipment, recruiting Li and Chen, among others, and subsequently hired over ten individuals to lease properties in places like Hefei, Anhui, to establish a USDT (Tether) trading studio. They formed illegal over-the-counter trading groups via Telegram, profiting from buying low and selling high.

During this period, the five individuals repeatedly took risks, knowing that the U-coins they received came from online gambling and telecom fraud; they still assisted telecom fraud criminals in making payments between Tether and RMB at high exchange rates. At the same time, Shen contacted downstream coin traders, including a certain Li, to settle payments according to the payment methods specified by upstream criminals, using Alipay, WeChat transfers, and cash deposits.

By the time of the incident, the involved defendants had profited over 880,000 yuan, including over 5.9 million yuan defrauded from more than ten victims, including residents of Chengguanzhen in Yongchang County, who were scammed 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 assist telecom network fraud perpetrators in transferring funds, which has departed from mere virtual currency business activities. Such behavior should be included as a key link in the comprehensive crackdown on illegal activities related to telecom network fraud, and the involved criminals should be punished.