3032 people prosecuted: The Supreme People's Procuratorate's report first mentioned virtual currency money laundering

On March 8 , Ying Yong, Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, delivered a report at the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress. In the second point of the first part of the report " Review of Work in 2024 " " Exerting procuratorial functions to serve the high-quality development of the economy and society " , he talked about escorting the high-quality development of finance ... and prosecuting 3,032 people for money laundering crimes such as using " virtual currency " to transfer criminal proceeds .

On the same day, Zhang Jun, President of the Supreme People's Court, also made a work report. In the first part of the report, " Review of Work in 2024 " , the first point " Maintaining National Security and Social Stability with Strict and Fair Judicial System " , it was mentioned that effectively maintaining financial security ... Wang lured 29,000 people to buy the so-called " virtual currency " , causing a loss of more than 1.7 billion yuan, illegally making 900 million yuan in profits, and " laundering " them overseas . The Sichuan Court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the crime of fund-raising fraud and money laundering.

In the two high courts' work reports, which were very concise, virtual currency and money laundering were mentioned at the same time, which fully demonstrated the importance that the highest judicial authority attaches to such cases. When the new judicial interpretation on money laundering was issued in 2024 , I wrote an interpretation article on this official account, mentioning two points : First, although the old judicial interpretation did not have a specific statement about virtual currency, the criminal model of using virtual currency for money laundering is still regulated by the judicial interpretation; second, the new judicial interpretation mentioned the criminal model of using virtual currency for money laundering, which shows that the judicial authorities have attached great importance to it and aim to emphasize it.

As a lawyer who has been paying close attention to criminal cases in the cryptocurrency world, I was somewhat surprised and surprised to see that more than 3,000 people were prosecuted for the crime of money laundering alone. As the fifth round of FATF assessment approaches, the punishment for money laundering crimes will only become more severe.

If you understand the behavior patterns regulated by the crime of money laundering, you will understand why virtual currency is so " close " to money laundering . The behavior of the crime of money laundering includes : (1) assisting the transfer of funds through transfer or other settlement methods; ( 2) assisting in remitting funds abroad; ( 3) concealing or hiding the illegal proceeds of the crime and the source and nature of the proceeds in other ways . The first two are not very relevant and are not listed here. It can be seen that if the upstream is the seven types of crimes, using virtual currency as a settlement method to assist in the transfer of funds, or taking advantage of the characteristics of virtual currency without borders and legal free transactions abroad to assist in remitting funds abroad, it is possible to constitute the crime of money laundering. Even if there is no such behavior, there is still " concealing or hiding the illegal proceeds of the crime and the source and nature of the proceeds in other ways " . In practice, as long as the source and nature are slightly concealed, it is easy to be identified as money laundering.

The Criminal Law Amendment (XI) includes self-laundering as a crime, that is, laundering one's own money. If one commits the seven upstream crimes stipulated in the crime of money laundering and uses the proceeds of the crime to purchase virtual currency, it is very easy to commit self-laundering. For example, a few days ago I wrote an article about the self-laundering of Hao Gang, the former deputy director of the Beijing Financial Bureau, and the money laundering crime of Wang mentioned in the Supreme Court report, both of which are self-laundering.