Author: Shao Shiwei; Source: Mankiw Blockchain Legal Services
Introduction p>
Friends often ask, can I still buy and sell U now? Is it illegal to speculate in currencies? Today we will use a few live cases to talk about this issue (part of the content has been desensitized to protect customer privacy).
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CaseExample 1: Helped a friend to sell U, and was convicted of concealment
A certain One day, B, who lives in place A, was called for questioning by the police in place B along the coast. After B arrived at place B, he was detained at the police station for 24 hours, and then he was convicted of covering up and concealing the proceeds of crime. He is currently on bail pending trial.
B asked me, he was just helping his friend sell U, why did he commit a crime? I asked him to tell me the whole story.
(Character relationships and transactions are shown in the picture)
B’s friend A I opened a company, and my customers were all overseas. Every time the customer made a payment, he would send Tether to A. A would go to B and ask B to convert his U into RMB, and charge a service fee of one thousand yuan.
In addition, A also has a friend C who cooperates regularly. This person will introduce A to many buyers who want to buy U.
One day, C contacted A and told him to introduce him to a person (D) who wanted to buy U, so A asked B to connect with C. D transferred RMB 200,000 to B's personal bank account. After B confirmed receipt, A transferred U the equivalent of RMB 200,000 to the address of buyer D specified by C. B deducts his own handling fee and transfers the remainder to A.
A few weeks later, B was investigated by the local police where he lived. It was said that D, the buyer of the previous transaction, reported that he had been defrauded of 500,000 yuan, so he called B over. Ask questions. At this time, B also found that his card had been frozen by the police in place B for 200,000 yuan. After understanding the situation, the police in place A said, you are fine, just go to place B and remove the card.
But when we arrived at place B, the police asked, have you ever traded U 300,000 yuan with xx company? xx company is D’s company, and D has been 500,000 was defrauded.
B said that these two transactions did exist. I helped my friend A sell U. I was connected with C. I didn’t know about D and xx. The company has connections, but I received 500,000 RMB, and my friend A gave U the corresponding 500,000 RMB. I can provide all transaction chains.
The police in Place B said: In short, D reported the case and was defrauded, and you have dealt with D and xx company. Now it is found that you are suspected of concealing the crime. Reimburse the victim's money.
[Lawyer Shao’s Comment]
B was indeed covered up Hidden guilt is indeed outrageous.
Based on similar situations that B encountered before, it is speculated that after A transferred U to the buyer, there was a problem with the transaction between the buyer and others. .
Up to now, it has been more than half a year. B has also given the contact information of A and C to the police in B, but the police have not found them, so B The only time I was questioned by the police in place B is that it stands to reason that this matter cannot be investigated clearly without asking A and C. B is just A's white glove. Moreover, A’s behavior has been suspected of illegal trading of foreign exchange.
The most important thing is that after the completion of this transaction, D transferred U to others, causing himself to be defrauded. What does it have to do with B? Why? What about asking B to refund the compensation?
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Case 2: I am a U.S. merchant and sell U.S. goods normally, but the police asked me to refund the money I received to the victim
The similarity between this case and the previous one lies in the issue of refund.
The client is a serious U.S. businessman (A) and has been in the U.S. buying and selling business for several years. One day, old friend B asked him to buy U again. Because of the trust relationship with many transactions, A directly transferred U to the address given by B. After that, A also received the corresponding RMB price.
This was originally the end of the deal. It was a pleasant transaction. But A was stuck. He contacted the police where the card was frozen, and the police said that C was deceived. You have to refund the amount of money you received from others, otherwise they will not unfreeze the bank card for you.
It turns out that in the transaction between A and B, B designated C to transfer money to A.
[Lawyer Shao’s comment]
Outrageous +1. This matter has something to do with B, but the local police are keeping an eye on A. What does this mean?
Furthermore, the plan given by the police to A is to ask A to refund the money to C, and then sue B for U (it’s really full of question marks)
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Case 3: The boss sells U and asks me to watch customers pay offline. What are my risks?
This is a question from a newcomer in the workplace. He said that he was looking for a job recently. The "boss" who interviewed him said that his team was looking for customers to buy U online, and some customers would ask for offline transactions. The job content is to communicate with customers offline and supervise the arrival of customer funds. If the customer pays into the boss's account, Mengxin will transfer the U to the customer.
He asked me if there were any risks in this job?
[Lawyer Shao’s Commentary]
As long as it is profitable , no matter how big or small the interests are, there will be people doing it on a large scale, and the same is true for U-commerce business. Therefore, it seems that it is not surprising for newcomers in the workplace to encounter such a job search experience.
Why do customers require offline transactions? Some customers feel that they are not protected if the other party does not transfer money to U. Sellers are more secure on the spot. But in offline transactions, there are often more abnormal situations. If you think about it from a normal perspective, trading on the exchange is so convenient, and the exchange itself has already done KYC on the platform entities, so why do these people have to go offline? Either they want to launder money without leaving any trace, or they want to deceive your U. If the buyer gives you a pile of cash, what if it is counterfeit money, or what if he takes the money back from you after you transfer the U? (These are real things that Lawyer Shao encountered...)
Because these people are very confident, if you go to the police station to report a crime, there is a high probability that no one will pay attention to you. . You tell the police: I was cheated when I bought U. The police ask, what is U? Or, how do you prove that your U is worth so much money? (Although most people know that the value of U is against the U.S. dollar, a report from an authoritative appraisal agency is still needed to handle the case as the basis for determining the value of U.
Popular Science : There are some domestic institutions that can conduct value appraisals of virtual currencies, usually entrusted by the public security. If an individual entrusts such an institution to issue an appraisal report, it may not necessarily be accepted by the judicial authorities. In short, it is easy to be deceived and difficult to defend rights).
U business friends, have you encountered any weird things?