The first case in the country, trading virtual currency, not receiving the stolen money, convicted of aiding and abetting

Be careful, some have already been sentenced. If the other party buys your USDT and transfers it to another platform, you must refuse, otherwise, your card may be frozen at the least, or even involved in a criminal offense.

A fan consulted me and said that the other party came to buy U. I also told him not to transfer U to other platforms, be careful of being cheated by others. As a result, the other party transferred U to a pig-killing scam and was cheated. He went to report to the police, and I became a criminal suspect. My bank card was frozen. Why did this happen? It was not a one-way exchange of money and goods. The transaction was obviously completed. I also reminded him during the transaction. What does his being cheated have to do with me?

This is the situation reported by many fans. In practice, many people have their cards frozen in this situation, and some will even rise to the level of criminal offenses and be subject to compulsory measures. In fact, in 2023, the Liling Municipal People's Court ruled on the above case. This article analyzes the first case in the country, buying and selling virtual currency, the other party bought U, was deceived by U, and the seller was convicted of aiding and abetting.

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Case Details

If you traded USDT on virtual currency exchanges such as EUR/USD and did not receive any stolen money, the court will consider that you knowingly assisted others in information network crimes and found that you committed the crime of aiding and abetting. This is another case in which the person was convicted of trading virtual currency USDT but did not receive any stolen money, following the sharing by Lawyer Wu's team of the first illegal business operation verdict made by the Dapu Court of Guangdong Province in 2022. Previously, we have always emphasized that the reason why trading virtual currency constitutes a criminal offense is that the stolen money received during the transaction, that is, the so-called black money, is presumed to be subjectively aware of it, which will either constitute the crime of aiding and abetting or the crime of concealing.

However, on February 16, 2023, the People's Court of Liling City, Hunan Province, ruled that OTC constituted the crime of aiding and abetting. After the judgment, there was no information that the defendant appealed, so the case has come into effect.

This case is that from November 2021 to July 2022, Su and others did OTC on the Ouyi platform, buying low and selling high to make a profit. Among them, the victim Yao downloaded "WHDC", "Ouyi" and other software according to the instructions of the fraudsters from October 2021 to March 2022, and bought coins on "Ouyi" and transferred them to "WHDC" for investment, and was defrauded of more than 300,000 yuan. During this period, Yao bought three U from Su's team, totaling RMB 60,000. This case is that I sold U to you, you were deceived by others, and I was convicted of aiding and abetting. During Su's OTC period, the bank card flow totaled more than 28 million, and he made a profit of more than 110,000.

Among them, Su and others did not plead guilty and argued in court: transactions on Ouyi were strictly reviewed, and they voluntarily gave up many transactions. In addition, virtual currency transactions did not require responsibility for subsequent destinations. When trading with Yao, it was an equal exchange and no criminal behavior was committed.



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Court opinion

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The opinion of the Liling People's Court:

Regarding the question of whether the defendants have committed a crime. The defendants and the defense counsel for Su, Yi, Lei, and Tong all stated that the defendants only conducted virtual currency transactions on the "Ouyi" platform and conducted strict audits on the transaction objects. They were not aware that others used information networks to commit crimes. Objectively, there was no evidence to prove the existence of specific aid objects and criminal acts, and they did not constitute the crime of aiding information network criminal activities as charged by the public prosecution agency.

(1) Upon investigation, the People's Bank of China, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange jointly issued the "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation" on September 15, 2021, clarifying that virtual currency trading speculation activities disrupt the economic and financial order and breed illegal and criminal activities such as gambling, illegal fundraising, fraud, pyramid schemes, and money laundering. Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities.

(2) In this case, Su was the first to engage in virtual currency trading speculation, and his bank card was frozen and stopped for payment on multiple occasions due to suspected fraud and other illegal crimes.

(3) The confessions of the defendants all prove that before the other defendants joined, Su clearly told them that “there is a lot of black money on the Ouyi platform” and that “buying at a low price and selling at a high price” would “guarantee a profit”, but their bank cards might be frozen and stopped from paying.

(4) In order to obtain illegal profits, the defendants knew that the speculation of virtual currency transactions was an illegal financial activity, but still registered merchant accounts on the "Ouyi" platform in the form of "studios" and specialized in virtual currency transactions. (5) Moreover, when their own or others' bank cards showed abnormalities due to violations or suspected crimes, they did not take effective remedial measures, but continued to trade by changing bank cards or platform accounts. They should be deemed to be aware that others used information networks to commit crimes. Their review of transaction objects and transaction funds based on self-awareness standards does not affect the characterization of their behavior, but can only be considered as a factor in determining subjective malice.

In addition, in terms of specific criminal facts, Su's multiple bank accounts were associated accounts involved in fraud crimes, indicating that funds from multiple victims were transferred in through other accounts. In the case of Yao being defrauded, Yao stated that he downloaded software such as "WHDC" and "Ouyi" according to the instructions of the fraudsters, and purchased coins on the "Ouyi" platform and transferred them to "WHDC" for investment, and was defrauded of more than 300,000 yuan. During this period, Yao transferred 11,502 yuan to Lei, 24,000 yuan to Yi, and 28,928.82 yuan to Qi. That is, Su, Yi, Lei, and Qi carried out illegal activities of virtual currency trading speculation, which helped the fraudsters to commit crimes. During the period when Su, Yi, Tong, and Liao jointly carried out virtual currency trading speculation, the bank accounts of Su and Liao were also linked to related crimes.

In summary, the defendants were subjectively aware that others used information networks to commit crimes, and objectively assisted others in using information networks to commit crimes through illegal activities of virtual currency trading speculation. Their actions constituted the crime of assisting information network criminal activities. This court does not accept the above-mentioned defense and defense opinions of the defendants and their defenders. Liao's defender argued that Liao had no subjective malice, that the amount involved was small and did not cause serious consequences, and the defense opinion was also not established, and this court did not accept it.

Su and others knew that others used information networks to commit crimes and provided assistance to them. The circumstances were serious and their actions constituted the crime of assisting information network criminal activities. The judgment was based on the 924 notice and the fact that Su and others’ bank cards were frozen and stopped by other police stations. In their confessions, they knew that there was black money on Ouyi.

Finally, the court sentenced Su and others to seven months in prison and four months in detention for the crime of aiding and abetting. The illegal gains from the trading of U during the period of Ouyi were recovered according to law and fined.



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Can he be convicted?

So, if you trade virtual currency USDT and the other party is defrauded of U, as the seller, does it mean that the transaction of virtual currency needs to be responsible for the subsequent destination? In 2024, if the seller does not receive the stolen money, will similar situations become a new direction of crackdown? Will it be convicted of aiding and abetting?

Wu's lawyer team holds a conservative opinion on this: the constituent elements of the crime of aiding and abetting should be that the suspect directly defrauded the victim Zhang San's funds, and then used the fraudulent funds to buy U from Li Si's merchant, and Li Si had an abnormal transaction method, and it is presumed that he had subjective knowledge before he could be convicted of the crime of aiding and abetting. Or, if the suspect has not yet defrauded the fraudulent funds, and bought U from Li Si's merchant, it is not the suspect who paid, but the victim who paid on his behalf. The transaction behavior is also abnormal, and it is presumed that he had subjective knowledge before he could be convicted of the crime of aiding and abetting. The common point is that the victim Zhang San himself did not realize that he was buying U, but the scammer bought U.

Wu's lawyer team believes that: the victim Zhang San purchased u himself and transferred u to another platform and was defrauded of u. This cannot be considered a case of aiding and abetting crime by Li Si, because the victim Zhang San had the option to choose not to transfer u to the fraudulent platform. Zhang San, based on being deceived, took the initiative to transfer u to the scammer's address, which led to being deceived. This has nothing to do with Li Si, the u merchant. Li Si did not provide payment settlement assistance in the crime of aiding and abetting crime, nor did he know that the victim Li Si was in a fraud trap, nor did he know that the upstream was committing information network crimes.



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Final Thoughts

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Regarding the cases discussed in this article, some public security organs in various places believe that the transaction is completed and has nothing to do with Li Si U Merchant, and will not freeze or unfreeze after freezing, and it will not rise to the level of criminal offense. Some will keep freezing and ask for refunds and unfreezing, and some will even directly take compulsory measures and determine that the behavior constitutes a crime, which rises to the level of criminal offense. If you encounter a U buyer who is not in the cryptocurrency circle and his purpose of buying U is to transfer it to other platforms for financial management, you must refuse to avoid being implicated.

If you are involved in this and communication with the case-handling unit is fruitless, you can seek help from a lawyer.

Areas of expertise: criminal defense and bank card unfreezing

Practicing lawyer at Shanghai Shuke Law Firm, head of the virtual currency criminal team, and head of the bank card unfreezing team.

Bank card unfreezing: You can appeal for unfreezing of bank cards frozen due to trading USDT or Bitcoin. Or you can appeal for unfreezing of bank cards frozen due to online gambling, foreign trade foreign exchange, or third-party currency exchange.

Virtual currency involves criminal offenses: OTC involves crimes such as aiding and abetting, concealing, illegal business operations, or money laundering and other economic crimes. Follow the anchor to avoid getting lost and continue to share useful information #香港加密货币ETF #BTC走势分析 #安全出金小常识 #BTC走势分析 #山寨币热点