Police in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, have investigated a cryptocurrency money laundering case in which a criminal group allegedly used "free credit card repayment advances" to lure ordinary users into providing bank accounts, according to a Sept. 30 report cited by BlockBeats from CCTV Finance.
The group then used fake consumption transactions to receive illicit funds tied to overseas gambling and telecom fraud, contacted crypto dealers to exchange the money into virtual currency, and sent the assets to designated offshore addresses.
Nearly 1,000 accounts identified
Police said they identified nearly 1,000 accounts connected to the case through analysis of fund flows and on-chain data. People involved in the case were located across Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Jiangsu, Hebei and Chongqing.
Seven members sentenced
Investigators found that seven members of the group had engaged in payment and settlement business without approval from relevant state authorities. The conduct constituted the crime of illegal business operations under the report. The seven were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and six months, and were also fined.
PBOC units highlight monitoring work
The Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China said it is currently using large-model technology to analyze the flow of funds in virtual currency transactions, reconstruct the group’s transaction patterns, and identify leads tied to black-market criminal activity.
Lu Wei, governor of the Inner Mongolia branch of the People’s Bank of China, said improving the monitoring and identification of abnormal fund transactions related to virtual currency trading helped authorities crack a major pyramid-selling money laundering case involving virtual currency. Authorities dismantled more than 10 money laundering and "running points" dens and seized about 130 million yuan in illegal proceeds. In recent years, the branch has coordinated efforts to push forward convictions in four virtual-currency money laundering cases under the crime of money laundering, forming what the report described as a strong deterrent against such offenses.