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A man named Chen Moubo opened a digital currency platform to issue virtual currency. He was investigated by the public security authorities for suspected fund-raising fraud and then fled abroad. The amount involved was more than 12 million yuan. In order to transfer property and conceal the proceeds of crime, Chen Mouzhi and Chen Moubo divorced. His ex-wife Chen Mouzhi exchanged part of her illegal proceeds into Bitcoin keys for her to exchange and use abroad. She was eventually sentenced to two years in prison for money laundering.
On March 19, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the People's Bank of China jointly released six typical cases of combating money laundering crimes, among which this case of money laundering using virtual currency was disclosed.
Divorce for property transfer
Woman uses virtual currency to launder money for her ex-husband
Between August 2015 and October 2018, Chen Moubo registered and established Yi Mou Financial Information Service Company. Without the approval of the relevant state departments, he publicly promoted regular fixed-income financial products to the public in the name of the company, decided the price increase or decrease on his own, and used the funds mainly to repay principal and interest and for personal squandering, and refused to repay in the later period. Chen Moubo also opened a digital currency trading platform to issue virtual currency, and used false propaganda to deceive customers into recharging and trading on the platform, fabricated platform transaction data, and covered up the funding gap by restricting large withdrawals and claiming that hackers had stolen the currency, delaying or even refusing investors to withdraw cash.
On November 3, 2018, the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau opened an investigation into Chen Moubo on suspicion of fundraising fraud. The amount involved was more than 12 million yuan. Chen Moubo fled abroad.
In mid-2018, Chen transferred 3 million yuan of the illegal fund-raising funds to his wife Chen Zhi's personal bank account. In August 2018, in order to transfer property and conceal the proceeds of crime, Chen Zhi and Chen Bo divorced. From the end of October to the end of November 2018, Chen Zhi, knowing that Chen Bo was investigated and filed for investigation by the public security organs for suspected fund-raising fraud and had fled abroad, still transferred the above 3 million yuan to Chen Bo's personal bank account for Chen Bo's use abroad.
In addition, in accordance with Chen Moubo's instructions, Chen Mouzhi sold the vehicle purchased by Chen Moubo with illegally raised funds at a low price of more than 900,000 yuan, and then contacted the Bitcoin "miner" in the WeChat group formed by Chen Moubo, and transferred all the money from the sale of the car to the "miner" in exchange for a Bitcoin key, and sent the key to Chen Moubo for him to exchange and use overseas.
The ex-husband has fled and has not yet been arrested
Procuratorate: It does not affect the determination of the woman's money laundering crime
On April 3, 2019, Chen Mouzhi was transferred for prosecution on suspicion of money laundering. After review, the Pudong New Area Procuratorate of Shanghai requested additional investigation, and the public security organs obtained evidence from the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China in accordance with the request. The Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China guided commercial banks and other anti-money laundering obligation institutions to investigate suspicious transactions, and handed over relevant evidence to the public security organs by penetrating the capital chain and analyzing and judging suspicious points.
Chen Moubo has not yet appeared in court. After review, the Pudong New Area Procuratorate of Shanghai believed that Chen Mouzhi helped Chen Moubo transfer the funds from fund-raising fraud overseas by means of bank transfer and bitcoin exchange, which constituted the crime of money laundering; the criminal facts of Chen Moubo's fund-raising fraud can be confirmed, and his escape overseas does not affect the determination of Chen Mouzhi's money laundering crime. On October 9, 2019, the Procuratorate of Shanghai Pudong New Area believed that Chen Mouzhi was charged with money laundering.
On December 23, 2019, the Pudong New District Court of Shanghai made a judgment, finding Chen Mouzhi guilty of money laundering, sentencing him to two years in prison and a fine of 200,000 yuan. Chen Mouzhi did not appeal, and the judgment has come into effect.
During the case handling process, the Shanghai Municipal Procuratorate alerted the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China to the risk of money laundering in the virtual currency field and suggested strengthening anti-money laundering supervision and financial intelligence analysis in new fields. The People's Bank of China provided this case as a successful example of China's fight against money laundering using virtual currency to the international anti-money laundering organization, the Financial Action Task Force, to introduce China's experience to the international community.
"If the upstream crime is verified to be true, but has not yet been adjudicated according to law, or criminal liability is not pursued according to law, it does not affect the identification and prosecution of money laundering." The typical significance of this case mentioned that although money laundering is a downstream crime, it is still an independent crime. Considering the necessity and timeliness of punishing crimes, upstream crimes can be examined as facts within the case of money laundering. If the upstream crime can be identified based on relevant evidence, the fact that the upstream crime has not been confirmed by a criminal judgment does not affect the identification of money laundering. (Inspection Daily) |
