Chinese ‘Criminals Used Digital Yuan to Launder Money’ – Prosecutors
Chinese law enforcers say they have shut down a gang that was using digital yuan wallets to launder money.
Per the media outlet The Paper, the gang was allegedly active in the Yuecheng District, in the municipality of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.
The Shaoxing Public Security Bureau said it had arrested and detained seven people on fraud-related changes.
The bureau said a bank employee alerted the police on September 16 last year after noting “very abnormal” transaction activity on a merchant’s e-CNY wallet.
The police “immediately” set up a task force to investigate. They eventually “determined” that the wallet was being used to collect funds for “groups of overseas fraudsters.”
Police eventually swooped on several addresses in Yuecheng and the Zhili District in Huzhou.
Officers said they seized some 20 mobile phones, as well as “computers and other equipment.”
They also froze over $3,370 worth of funds in digital yuan wallets and bank accounts.
The bureau added that the group had used e-CNY wallets to process some $70,000 worth of laundered funds.
The media outlet claimed that the alleged criminals “took advantage of the high privacy functions of digital yuan transactions.”
The gang also allegedly thought that it would be extremely difficult for law enforcers to “investigate” funds laundered in e-CNY.
Police said the group had been active “since the beginning of September.”
And officers said the group raised digital yuan tokens by duping hotel owners in cities like Shaoxing, Jinhua, Hangzhou, and Jiaxing.
The group allegedly told hotel operators that they could receive 8% commission fees if they swapped digital yuan coins for cash.
A bureau spokesperson warned the public that “participating” in private “digital yuan exchange”
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