ME News reports that on June 6 (UTC+8), Lin, Zeng, and Dai conspired to use virtual currency trading as a ruse, secretly photographing victims’ digital wallet private keys during transactions, and then secretly logging into the victims’ wallets to cancel the transactions after the virtual currency arrived, transferring the funds back to accounts under their control. The three individuals committed this crime three times, causing total losses of RMB 660,000 to the victims. The first-instance court held that, in the absence of clear judicial interpretations defining methods for calculating the value of virtual currencies or sentencing standards, it was inappropriate to directly classify the amount involved as “particularly huge” based solely on the victims’ purchase cost of RMB 660,000. Accordingly, the court sentenced each defendant under the category of “other serious circumstances,” imposing prison terms of eight to five and a half years respectively, along with fines. Subsequently, the Hanyang District Procuratorate in Wuhan, Hubei Province, filed a protest, which was supported by the Wuhan Municipal Procuratorate. The prosecution argued that the first-instance court misapplied the law and imposed excessively lenient sentences. Prosecutor Dai Wentao of the Wuhan Municipal Procuratorate stated that it was logically inconsistent and legally erroneous to claim that the value of virtual currencies could not be determined when there was a clear and measurable loss suffered by the victims. In judicial practice, it has become the mainstream approach to determine theft amounts based on resale prices or transaction prices; recognizing the actual cost paid by victims as the value of virtual currencies is supported by facts, law, and practical precedent. The Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court, in its second-instance ruling, adopted the prosecution’s position, overturned the original judgment’s findings on the amount involved, and reclassified the theft as “particularly huge.” The court sentenced the ringleader Lin to ten and a half years in prison, and accomplices Zeng and Dai each to eight years in prison, with fines imposed on all three. (Source: ChainCatcher)
Wuhan Court Overturns Verdict in Virtual Currency Theft Case; Thief Sentenced to 10.5 Years
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Summary
A Wuhan court recently revised a virtual currency theft case under CFT guidelines, sentencing the main perpetrator to 10.5 years. The trio stole over 660,000 RMB by accessing victims’ private keys and transferring funds. The appellate court ruled the stolen amount as particularly large, increasing the penalty. The case underscores the intersection of CFT and liquidity in crypto markets. Fines were also imposed on all three defendants.
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