A man born in the 1990s in Anhui Province defrauded nearly 100 million yuan by selling Bitcoin mining machines at low prices

The pictures in this article are from CCTV News Client

According to CCTV News Client, in the past two years, as Bitcoin has gained great attention, the price of Bitcoin mining machines has also risen sharply. Recently, the Huaibei police in Anhui Province cracked a major fraud case in which a person defrauded nearly 100 million yuan by selling Bitcoin mining machines at low prices.

On the eve of the 2018 Spring Festival, nearly 50 victims from many parts of the country went to the Xiangshan Branch of the Huaibei Public Security Bureau to report that they had been defrauded by a local man named Zhang who was born in the 1990s. The amount of money they were defrauded was nearly 100 million yuan. Moreover, they did not know Zhang and had been in contact with him through the Internet.

Victim, Ms. Fu: We met through chatting on WeChat, and then he said that the supply of goods was stable, so we placed an order with him.

Ms. Fu said that Zhang had previously claimed on the Internet that he could get a large number of low-priced mining machines, so everyone bought thousands of Bitcoin mining machines from Zhang at a price of about 10,000 yuan per machine, using the so-called "futures" method of ordering two months before delivery.

At first, Ms. Fu and her friends were a little skeptical, but because the quantity they had purchased was not large, Zhang was able to deliver on time, which dispelled their concerns. Zhang thus became a celebrity in the circle, and people went to him through various channels to buy mining machines, and then resold them at a higher price.

Jiang Leilei, a police officer from the Economic Investigation Team of Xiangshan Branch of Huaibei Public Security Bureau: It is possible that I just want to earn a profit from the interest rate difference and sell the machine to the next buyer. In fact, it is possible that the next buyer does not need the machine either. We are all on the same line. It is possible that a machine will be sold five or six times.

In fact, the mining machines delivered by Zhang were all bought by him at a price of more than 30,000 yuan per unit and then sold at a loss.

Jiang Leilei, a police officer from the Economic Investigation Team of the Xiangshan Branch of the Huaibei Public Security Bureau: Through the evidence collected, it can be seen that he lost about 15,000 to 20,000 yuan for each machine. In January, he had orders for more than 1,000 machines, so he lost more than 20 million yuan in January.

In this way, Zhang borrowed from Peter to pay Paul, and in more than three months, he defrauded nearly 100 million yuan. As the hole grew bigger, in mid-January, Zhang, who could no longer ship goods, suddenly disappeared, which made Ms. Fu and her colleagues very anxious. The buyers who could not get the goods began to force them to deliver the goods or pay compensation. In mid-March, Zhang voluntarily surrendered to the police.

Suspect Zhang: There are not that many products on the market, and the market price has reached 33,000 or 34,000 yuan per unit. Even if you have money, you can’t buy it.

Reporter: How much did you need to send at that time?

Suspect Zhang: At that time, we needed to send out more than 3,000 units.

The police investigation found that Zhang used part of the money he received to buy high-priced mining machines, and the rest was squandered on luxury homes and a large number of luxury cars. Currently, the suspect Zhang has been arrested on suspicion of contract fraud, and the case is being further handled.

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