|
Beijing News Express According to the WeChat public account of Hangzhou Intermediate Court, on December 11, Hangzhou Intermediate Court publicly sentenced the "Energy Californium" investment platform to fund-raising fraud, sentenced the defendant Xia Hongming to life imprisonment for fund-raising fraud, deprived him of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property; sentenced the defendants Fu Yuedi, Xuan Liqun, Xia Yifeng, and Xu Jinfu to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 13 to 6 years, and fined RMB 400,000 to 100,000. This case is the largest fund-raising fraud case investigated and dealt with in Hangzhou so far, which is under the guise of "blockchain" and uses "virtual currency" transactions as a criminal means.
The court found that the defendant Xia Hongming was sentenced to three years in prison and four years of probation for organizing and leading pyramid selling activities in February 2014. During the probation period, Xia Hongming conspired with others to illegally raise funds based on the Energy Californium Investment Platform with servers located overseas in late May and early June 2016, and profited from it.
In early June 2016, Xia Hongming assigned Xia Yifeng and other employees of Zhejiang Guanxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Guanxin Company), which he actually controlled, to go abroad to negotiate the introduction of the Energy Californium Investment Platform. Later, Xia Hongming and the platform agreed that he would be responsible for promoting and marketing the Energy Californium Investment Platform in China. Afterwards, Xia Hongming, together with Fu Yuedi, Xuan Liqun, Xia Yifeng, Xu Jinfu and others, knowing that the Energy Californium Platform had no actual operating projects, still organized several Energy Californium Investment Platform promotion meetings in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Jiangxi, Hong Kong, and Macau in the name of Guanxin Company, and promoted the idea that investing in the Californium Coin issued by the platform would be a sure win, etc., by word of mouth, to attract the public to invest in the Energy Californium Platform.
In September 2016, in order to increase the promotion of the Energy Californium Investment Platform, Xia Hongming, together with Lu Minfei and others, invested in the establishment of Zhejiang Californium Energy Network Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Californium Energy Company). In January 2017, the "Californium Wallet" mobile APP was developed and launched in the name of the company and connected to the Energy Californium Investment Platform to facilitate investors to operate using their mobile phones.
Xia Hongming instructed Xia Yifeng to contact the platform to register and activate the first batch of domestic energy californium platform accounts and control their use. He also worked with the platform to set up account recommendation activation, multi-level account allocation, left-right line development team and other operating modes, and induced investors to develop downlines layer by layer by distributing corresponding californium coins for free according to the number of downlines developed, and ensured that Xia Hongming was at the top of the platform investment level for profit. At the same time, Xia Hongming and others used the high returns such as "playing simulation" or prediction gambling games launched by the publicity platform and "elf mining" that can earn californium coins and withdraw cash as bait to induce investors to further increase their investment. After investors register and enter the platform, they need to be given 0.01 californium coins or 0.1 californium coins by the recommender to activate the account, thus forming a superior-subordinate relationship with the recommender. Investors need to convert the RMB funds they invest into virtual US dollars at a fixed exchange rate of approximately 6.79 from the platform's bank or the investor's bank before they can purchase Californium coins for investment according to the platform's current price; when investors sell Californium coins for cash, they can only withdraw the funds after converting them into RMB at a fixed exchange rate of approximately 6.66.
In October 2016, in order to delay the withdrawal of Californium coins earned by investors through "playing simulations" and the financial pressure on the platform, Xia Hongming launched the "California Mall" with the platform, and stipulated that 30% of the Californium coins earned from "playing simulations" must be spent in the mall. In addition to 40% of the Californium coin earnings that can be withdrawn immediately, the other 30% of the Californium coin earnings must be delayed for one year before they can be withdrawn. In fact, the mall is mainly controlled by Xia Hongming, and the income is obtained from the platform.
In order to maintain the operation of funds and create the illusion that the energy californium will only rise and not fall, Xia Hongming and others colluded with the platform to manipulate the price of californium coins from about US$16 in early June 2016 to about US$33 in September 2017, in order to increase investor confidence and further expand the scale of fundraising. In reality, it was a way of paying off previous debts with later debts, with investors who bought californium coins at low prices reselling them to subsequent investors at high prices, and the virtual californium coins had no actual value; Xia Hongming and others received a huge amount of californium coins for free due to the above operations and resold them for cash, thereby making profits.
In early September 2017, as the state issued regulations to control virtual currency transactions, investors began to sell off a large number of californium coins to withdraw cash. Under the control of Xia Hongming and others, the Energy Californium Investment Platform closed the Californium Mall and suspended the Californium Coin trading, and then restricted the trading. Finally, the platform's Californium Coin was imported into the foreign exchange market for cash withdrawal, and the unit price of Californium Coin was manipulated to drop to about 3 US dollars, and then continued to drop to about 0.6 US dollars. By the time the case was discovered, it had caused hundreds of millions of yuan in property losses to many investors.
Xia Hongming and others used most of the money to purchase real estate, cars, land, commercial insurance, etc. Part of it was transferred overseas and used for false advertising, maintaining company operations, etc., and they were unable to repay the money until the case was discovered.
The court held that the defendants Xia Hongming, Fu Yuedi, Xuan Liqun, Xia Yifeng, Xu Jinfu, etc., for the purpose of illegal possession, in the name of investing in online virtual currency, using the bait of promising high returns, illegally raised funds from the public by controlling prices and repaying previous debts with later debts, etc., causing the victims to suffer extremely huge property losses, and their actions constituted the crime of fund-raising fraud. The court distinguished the principal and the accomplice based on the role and status of each defendant in the joint crime of fund-raising fraud and made the above judgment. |
