- A Chinese resident has been sent to prison for buying USDT stablcoins.
- A Chinese citizen has been sentenced to nine months in prison for transactions using the messenger WeChat.
- He will also pay a fine of 5,000 yuan ($689).
A Chinese resident was convicted by the Fuzhou Mawai People’s Procuratorate for buying 94,988 yuan ($13,067 USDT at the time of writing) worth of Stablecoins. This was reported by Cointelegraph, citing Chinese media.
A Chinese citizen named Chen was reportedly contacted in February 2022 by his acquaintance Lin. He asked for his bank card details, which were sent in WeChat messenger. Chen subsequently received seven remittances in RMB from Lin.
After crediting the funds, the Chinese national bought about 13,000 USDT and sent them to Lin again. Transaction fees totaled 147.1 yuan ($20.26 at the time of writing), according to the source.
The Chinese man accused of buying stablecoins was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for 1 year, and fined 5,000 yuan ($689).
“Fraudsters use virtual currency to transfer and launder stolen money. The cryptocurrency is used to finance crimes, which is a violation of the law,” according to Fuzhou Mawei People’s Procuratorate.
Last week, Jinfeng Sun, political commissioner of the Network Security Bureau, said blockchain and artificial intelligence were involved in a series of incidents involving “fraud and data theft.”
The New York State Prosecutor’s Office previously reported that Tether Limited backed the USDT stablecoin with Chinese securities. In July, the Multichain protocol ceased operations following the arrest of the CEO by Chinese police. Funds totaling $220 million have come under the control of the PRC authorities.
Some of the funds have been transferred to the PRC authorities.