Shanghai Prosecutors Announce First Virtual Currency Crime Case In China

According to BlockBeats, on August 30, the Xuhui District Procuratorate in Shanghai announced the first national case involving virtual currency at the 'Guangqi X Space' establishment ceremony, which focuses on combating new types of cybercrime. This announcement comes amid a rising trend in virtual currency-related crimes, both in terms of the number of cases and the amounts involved. To address this, the Xuhui District Procuratorate and the Xuhui District Public Security Bureau have jointly issued the 'Guidelines for the Disposal of Virtual Currency in Criminal Proceedings.' These guidelines provide detailed and clear regulations for the entire process of handling virtual currency cases, including investigation, evidence preservation, seizure, custody, and transfer, offering a concrete guide for the lawful disposal of virtual currency involved in criminal cases. Song Shanshan, head of the cyber prosecution team at the Xuhui District Procuratorate, noted that over the past three years, there has been an overall increase in virtual currency-related crimes. Compared to traditional crimes, these cases often involve organized groups, with associated black and grey industries forming chains and becoming industrialized. These crimes have rapidly evolved into accomplices in cyberspace criminal activities, with increasingly concealed and professional methods, and the amounts involved are often substantial, frequently reaching millions of yuan. For instance, the first national case of illegally obtaining digital wallet private keys, announced yesterday, involved three criminals, including Liu Moumou. The trio conspired to implant a 'backdoor' in an app package that stored virtual currency wallets, thereby illegally obtaining 27,622 mnemonic phrases and 10,203 digital wallet private keys. They used this information to parse 19,487 digital wallet addresses, posing a serious threat to the security of virtual currencies. Following prosecution by the Xuhui District Procuratorate, Liu and the other two individuals were recently sentenced by the Xuhui District Court for the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. Each received a three-year prison sentence and a fine of 30,000 yuan.