The Huoniu platform finally came to an end: a top student developed an illegal virtual currency trading platform, involving 480 million yuan

On June 18, Zhangjiagang police disclosed this case at a press conference on the crackdown of a major cross-border online loan fraud case:

Zhangjiagang police recently cracked a cross-border illegal fourth-party payment platform case, successfully destroying a criminal gang that provided payment and settlement channels for routine loan fraud, and arrested 72 people involved in the case, with funds of more than 480 million yuan involved. After investigation, it was found that the "Huoniu" platform was founded by Wang and four others, and accumulated more than 90 million yuan in wealth.

For people in the industry, the term "fire bull" is not unfamiliar.

The scam loan terminal reappears on the virtual currency trading platform "Huoniu"

According to a police press conference, while investigating a loan scam report, police found that hundreds of loan apps suspected of loan scams were using a fourth-party payment platform called "Huoniu."

"The Huoniu fourth-party payment platform in this case is actually a virtual currency trading platform. It is an unlicensed institution that has not obtained a legal payment business license and illegally provides funds payment and settlement services." Zuo Chao, deputy director of Tangqiao Police Station of Zhangjiagang Public Security Bureau, said in an interview.

According to reports, the platform was founded by Wang and others, and used blockchain technology to settle accounts to avoid fund tracking. Cai Hao, a police officer from the Internet Police Brigade of Zhangjiagang Public Security Bureau, also pointed out some details in the case. The "Huoniu" platform settled accounts through the "Huoniu Coins" issued: "At the final settlement, the virtual currency platform settled with the financiers of the loan APP, and the settlement was made one-to-one with the RMB based on how many Huoniu coins you have in your account."

The police also mentioned: "Wang was a top student majoring in computer science at a prestigious university with an annual salary of over one million yuan. Before that, they found that others had taken the technology they developed and went out to make money, and made a lot of money. Then they quit their jobs, which we thought were quite high-paying, with annual salaries of hundreds of thousands of yuan. After quitting these jobs, they came out on their own and developed the Huoniu platform. (The police) cut off all his funding chains, and secondly, started with his family, because we knew that he was also a person with high IQ and high education, so we persuaded his family."

According to further reports, since December 2019, this gang has committed crimes in Da Nang, Vietnam and Kokang, Myanmar. The core members of the platform are hiding in the Kokang area of ​​Myanmar, and the rest are scattered across the country, including Da Nang, Vietnam, Dubai, UAE, Guangzhou, Guangdong, Beihai, Guangxi, Chengdu and Suining, Sichuan, Hangzhou and Wenzhou, Zhejiang. In April this year, the Internet police went to four provinces and six cities to close the net, and later arrested 72 people involved in the case, with the funds involved reaching 480 million. According to preliminary statistics, the platform has accumulated more than 90 million in wealth.

The most-liked comment under this news is as follows: "This person is from Tsinghua University. When something happened before, many people went to the Tsinghua forum to curse him. There was a Huoniu video project that I participated in two years ago. It was a very obvious Ponzi scheme. Those who participated early may have made their money back."

Fire Bull Video: Memories from 2018

What is the connection between the Huoniu platform and the "Huoniu Video" in 2018?

In 2018, Huoniu Video, which promoted the concept of "blockchain + video", quickly became popular. The platform attracted a large number of users by attracting new users and high dividends. According to media reports, the total number of users who recharged on the Huoniu Video platform that year was about 2.9 million, with a total recharge amount of more than 600 million.

According to the original white paper of the leaked Huoniu video, the platform intends to build Douyin and YouTube with blockchain technology. CEO Jing Feng is a doctor of artificial intelligence from Tsinghua University and was admitted to Tsinghua University's computer science major with the first place in Tsinghua University. The platform points are called FB, with a total of 10 billion. Users can participate in dividends based on the FB they hold.

Regarding the authenticity of "Jingfeng's" doctoral identity, we can see through the Google Scholar website link that he has worked for Baidu, Tudou, and Microsoft Asia. Comparing the same account on Zhihu platform again, the user Jingfeng with similar information has the same educational background as the Department of Computer Science at Tsinghua University.

However, several months after becoming popular, the Huoniu video platform began to frequently modify its dividend rules, and the user withdrawal channel was stopped. Then, investors began to face a long road of rights protection.

When Huoniu Video gradually disappeared in early 2019, some media pointed out at the time: "Some whistleblowers said that despite the intervention of the police, they never found Jing Feng from beginning to end."

In October 2019, the Anti-Fraud Network issued a report saying that the Huoniu video seemed to be making a comeback and reminded users to be vigilant.

The "Huoniu" fourth-party payment platform mentioned in the case has been active since December 2019. The police report stated that the platform had a "clear division of labor", including the fourth-party payment platform, APP developers, APP promoters, and so on.

According to the information currently released by the police, it is still not possible to completely identify the criminal suspect and "Jingfeng". However, based on feedback from a large number of community users, the information points that have been made public, such as "Huoniu Coin", "blockchain technology", "graduated from a prestigious university", "graduated from a computer department", "the team is distributed in Guangzhou, Beihai, Guangxi, Chengdu and Suining, Sichuan, Hangzhou and Wenzhou, Zhejiang", etc., all point to Huoniu Video step by step.

2020 regulatory tone set for "clean internet"

Coincidentally, recently, the official WeChat account of the Haizhou Branch of the Lianyungang Public Security Bureau released the "Haizhou District Notice on the Verification and Registration of Investment Member Information in the "Bell Chain" Case". The case in which criminal suspects Cheng Moufa, Zhang Mou and others are suspected of organizing and leading pyramid schemes has been transferred by the Haizhou Branch of the Lianyungang Public Security Bureau to the Haizhou District People's Procuratorate for review and prosecution in accordance with the law.

So far, Baer Chain has been identified as a pyramid scheme. The police are currently collecting clues from the public. Members who have registered and invested in relevant game public chains, and members who can prove that they participated in the registration and investment under the instigation of the criminal suspect in this case, can register for information verification.

According to Blocklike, the Ministry of Public Security's "Net Clean 2020" special operation is currently underway. The "Net Clean 2020" special operation is approved by the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security to combat and rectify online crimes, thoroughly rectify online order, and further create a safe, clear, and orderly network environment. It aims to further strengthen the crackdown on online crimes and the rectification of cyberspace order, resolutely destroy the black and gray industrial chain of the Internet, rectify the online crime ecology, and curb the high incidence of cybercrime.

At present, the local financial regulatory bureau has recently made it clear that the targets of the special rectification of relevant Internet financial risks include P2P online lending, non-bank payments, virtual currency transactions, ICO, Internet asset management, Internet foreign exchange transactions and other business areas. With the tightening of national supervision again, the blockchain industry is not a lawless place, and Ponzi schemes based on related technologies or financial concepts will eventually be sanctioned by law.