An employee remotely stole 100 Bitcoins from Bitmain and was sentenced to one year and three months in prison

Liu Yongsheng, reporter of Meijing.com, Liao Dan, editor of Meijing.com

Since the birth of the first Bitcoin in 2009, it has attracted the attention of countless people.

According to the cryptocurrency market website coinmarketcap.com, as of now, the price of a bitcoin is about $10,000, with a market value of $180 billion, which is a 4 million-fold increase from its earliest trading price.

Bitcoin is becoming more and more valuable. As the world's largest mining machine manufacturer and a mining machine giant with a large amount of Bitcoin, Bitmain has naturally become a target of criminals.

Employee remotely steals 100 bitcoins

Recently, the China Judgments Online website published a case in which a Bitmain employee remotely hacked into the Alibaba Cloud server rented by the company and stole 100 bitcoins.

According to the judgment document, the defendant Zhong Moumou has been working as an operation and maintenance development engineer for Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Bitmain") since November 16, 2015. From about 18:00 on September 15, 2017 to about 1:00 the next day, in Haidian District, Beijing, he used TEAMVIEWER software to remotely control his computer at Bitmain's workstation, used ROOT permissions to enter the Alibaba Cloud server rented by the company, inserted code in the Bitcoin wallet program, and transferred 100 Bitcoins to his personal "wallet" on the Internet. At about 9:00 on September 16 of the same year, Bitmain found that the company's Bitcoin balance on the Internet was insufficient, so it sought help from Beijing Knowsec Information Technology Co., Ltd. and paid RMB 36,000 in "information technology service fees" and "security service fees".

After the incident, the defendant Zhong voluntarily surrendered himself and was detained on January 2, 2018. He has returned 90 bitcoins to Bitmain.

The court held that the defendant Zhong used technical means to illegally obtain computer information system data, causing economic losses of more than 10,000 yuan, and the circumstances were serious. His actions constituted the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data and should be punished.

In view of the fact that the defendant Zhong surrendered himself after committing the crime and truthfully confessed his crime, he surrendered himself, so this court gave him a lighter punishment according to law. In accordance with the provisions of Article 285, paragraph 2, Article 67, paragraph 1, Article 53, and Article 64 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 1, Item (4) of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases Endangering the Security of Computer Information Systems, the defendant Zhong was convicted of the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data and sentenced to one year and three months in prison and a fine of RMB 50,000; the ten bitcoins illegally obtained by the defendant Zhong were recovered and returned to Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd.

Not sentencing for theft reflects the seriousness of criminal trials

Bitcoin is virtual property. Why did the man who stole 100 bitcoins commit the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data instead of theft?

In this regard, the reporter of Daily Economic News interviewed Sun Zhiyong, senior partner of Beijing Tianchi Juntai Law Firm and visiting professor of China University of Political Science and Law. Sun Zhiyong analyzed to the reporter of Daily Economic News that the main text of the judgment has two items: 1. The defendant Zhong Moumou was convicted of illegally obtaining computer information system data and sentenced to one year and three months in prison and a fine of RMB 50,000. 2. The ten bitcoins obtained illegally by the defendant Zhong Moumou shall be recovered and returned to Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. From the second item of the main text of the judgment, the People's Court recognized the property nature of Bitcoin and recovered and returned the bitcoins obtained by Zhong Moumou.

So why was the first item of the judgment not considered a theft crime? The main considerations may be as follows:

1. Clarifying the virtual commodity nature of Bitcoin is mainly based on the notice issued by the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments on December 5, 2013. The notice confirmed the asset nature of Bitcoin and the judgment to return Bitcoin is acceptable.

2. However, this recognition of the nature of Bitcoin assets is not a legislative recognition by the legislature. It is not even an administrative regulation of the State Council or a departmental regulation of any department. It is only a "notification", which is at a relatively low level from a legislative perspective.

3. The legal basis requirements for criminal trials are very strict and should follow the basic principle of "no crime without clear provisions in the law". In the absence of legislation to confirm the asset attributes of Bitcoin, not prosecuting and sentencing for theft also reflects the seriousness of criminal trials. At the same time, for this obviously serious illegal behavior, it is understandable to use the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data for conviction and sentencing in the absence of clear legislation.

Cover image source: Photo Network