How to quickly find a reliable lawyer in the face of sudden crypto criminal cases?

In criminal cases, it is often the breadwinners of the family who are arrested, and those who are left behind are often the mothers and elderly parents who know nothing about the case.

In this panic and helpless moment, how can the family members find a reliable lawyer for their family members as soon as possible, and what should the family members do to better help the parties? How to push the case in a favorable direction?

Just last week, our criminal team handled a case in which a client was charged with fraud and successfully obtained bail for the client. So let's take this case as an example to talk to you. (Note: The names and place names in the article are all pseudonyms, and the details of the case are also technically processed to protect the privacy of the parties.)

The police suddenly came to my house and took my husband away

One ​​morning, Mrs. Wang and her family were sitting around the dining table eating breakfast, preparing to send their children to kindergarten later. On this ordinary day, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Dong Dong Dong——"

The moment Mr. Wang opened the door, three or four law enforcement officers in uniform immediately appeared in front of him. One of them showed his police officer ID and said, "We are police officers from the XX Public Security Bureau. You are suspected of fraud and we need you to cooperate with our investigation." As soon as the voice fell, cold handcuffs were handcuffed on Mr. Wang's wrists. Before Mrs. Wang could react, her husband was taken away.

The door slammed shut, leaving only Mrs. Wang standing there and her frightened child crying.

"How is it possible?" Her mind was blank, and she couldn't figure it out: How could her husband, who was usually honest and never caused trouble, be suspected of fraud?

She forced herself to calm down, and after settling her children, she immediately rushed to the police station to inquire about the situation. But the police told her: Because this is a criminal case, Mrs. Wang cannot see her husband at present. She could only wait at the door of the police station for two days, and finally waited for a detention notice - it clearly stated: Wang Moumou is suspected of fraud.

What is even more worrying is that the police at the police station admitted that they actually didn’t know why Mr. Wang was arrested - they were just assisting in the execution of the task, and the real case handling unit was in a fifth-tier small city in Yunnan. Now, Mr. Wang has been temporarily detained in the local detention center, waiting for the police there to come for interrogation. But they have not received any news about when the Yunnan police will arrive.

It was at this time that Mrs. Wang learned that only lawyers could enter the detention center to meet her husband. But she was a little confused for a moment - she had been taking care of the children at home for these years, and had almost no contact with the society. There was no lawyer's number in her mobile phone address book. Where can I find a reliable lawyer who can really help her husband?

She suddenly remembered her husband's old friend Brother Zhao - he was usually righteous and knowledgeable. So with the idea of ​​giving it a try, she called Brother Zhao. After Brother Zhao learned about the situation, he immediately started to inquire, and finally contacted us.

What illegal things did my husband do?

During the initial communication with Mrs. Wang, since the family members were not clear about Mr. Wang’s specific suspected behavior, we, as lawyers, needed to help the client recall and restore the relevant facts as much as possible through continuous guidance.

We asked: "Has Mr. Wang contacted any strangers recently? Has he participated in any large transactions?"

Mrs. Wang said that she had been thinking about it these days. She emphasized that her husband was a very good person to his family and friends. He was a decent person and it was impossible for him to defraud others. The only abnormal situation she could think of was that Mr. Wang told her last month that he sold a USDT virtual currency.

We continued to guide the family members to further recall and add details. After a night of in-depth communication, we learned that because Mr. Wang’s father had cancer and had surgery, Mr. Wang had been under great financial pressure recently, and he cashed out part of his Bitcoin last month. However, Mrs. Wang was not clear about the specific transaction process, details, and the identity of the other party.

Hearing this, we can basically judge that Mr. Wang may have received a call from the trading party about the victim's fraudulent funds during this U-selling process. It happened that another victim reported the case, and a fifth-tier city in Yunnan was most likely the place where the victim reported the case.

Based on the preliminary clues of the case, we quickly started preparations. Lawyer Gao Mengyang from our team rushed out at the first time and quickly developed a detailed meeting plan, including a list of questions for the meeting, preliminary legal analysis, and several response strategies for the possible development of the case. Afterwards, Lawyer Gao set off for the detention center to prepare to meet with Mr. Wang.

Misfortune

When I met Mr. Wang in the detention center, he had been detained for two weeks. As the Yunnan police had not arrived yet and the local police had not conducted a substantive interrogation, Mr. Wang still did not know why he was detained and was extremely confused.

The lawyer asked: "Did you make a U withdrawal last month, and the amount was not small?"

Mr. Wang slapped his thigh and suddenly realized: "So it was this matter!", but at the same time he also asked puzzledly, "Lawyer Gao, I was so careful, and this was a normal withdrawal, how could it be involved in the case?"

After further communication, we got more detailed information. Mr. Wang is the owner of a restaurant and has a master's degree. A few years ago, he started to invest in virtual currencies, but he was always very cautious. As a long-term holder, he only invested in Bitcoin, and for many years he only made deposits and never made withdrawals.

However, due to the difficulties in the catering industry in the past two years, his family encountered a major change - the elderly had cancer and needed surgery, plus various expenses such as mortgages, and funds were temporarily tight. Therefore, Mr. Wang considered cashing out a small part of his Bitcoin. He first transferred Bitcoin from the OE platform to the BA exchange, and then completed a withdrawal transaction from a five-star merchant specially found by Binance. The other party deposited the corresponding consideration of 500,000 yuan into Mr. Wang's account.

Although the police had not yet questioned Mr. Wang until the lawyer met with him, combined with the accounts of Mr. Wang and Mrs. Wang, as well as our experience in handling a large number of related cases, we initially judged that the reason why Mr. Wang was detained was probably because he accidentally received the stolen money involved in the case during the withdrawal process.

After Mr. Wang was taken to Yunnan, Lawyer Gao and Mrs. Wang also rushed to the local area as soon as possible. Through communication with the police officer in charge, we gradually learned the overall background of the case:

It turned out that the cause of this case was a local wealthy businessman who was defrauded. The amount involved was huge, and the public security organs attached great importance to it. The case has been listed as a large-scale online fraud case uniformly deployed by the superior public security organs and investigated across provinces. At present, more than 300 relevant personnel have been arrested and brought to justice across the country, and all of them are detained in the local detention center. In addition, we learned that the detention center in the area can accommodate up to 6,000 people, so it will not consider releasing some of the detained persons due to the excessive number of detained persons.

In the process of communicating with the police, we also expressed our views: Mr. Wang just sold the virtual currency he held normally, did not participate in the fraud, and did not collude with the fraudsters, so there was no accomplice. He should not be treated as a suspect just because the money he received from the other party was stolen money.

The police identified the 500,000 yuan obtained by Mr. Wang from normal transactions as "stolen money" and demanded a full refund. However, this was the money Mr. Wang earned from selling Us. At present, this money is identified as "stolen money" obtained illegally, which Mr. Wang and his wife cannot accept in any way. Moreover, after receiving this money, Mr. Wang used it to repay his previous consumer loan (medical expenses). Now he really cannot come up with this money.

At this time, Mr. Wang has been detained in the detention center for nearly three weeks. The parties and their families are faced with the following realistic choices:

Either, return 500,000 yuan and strive for bail pending trial; or, they can only continue to be detained and wait for the final judgment of the court.

Every level is difficult to pass

Although the initial conclusion reached during this communication with the police was that they would not release him easily, we did not gain nothing. As lawyers, we obtained a key piece of information: the police's current approach to Mr. Wang's case was highly consistent with our judgment on the approach when we first communicated with Mr. Wang, even when we did not yet have a grasp of the specific case. This means that the characterization of the case and its possible direction did not deviate from our prediction, which is crucial for our subsequent response.

What should we do next? We decided to use both soft and hard tactics and advance on two fronts.

The details of the game in the case handling process will no longer be unfolded one by one, but it can be said that every step was not easy. From the multiple rounds of "serious" confrontations between lawyers and case officers, to Mr. Wang's perseverance in the detention center, to Mrs. Wang's cooperation with lawyers to move forward step by step, we continued to exert efforts from the three dimensions of law, procedure, and reason.

Off-topic:

Some people may think that this should have been the result. He just traded virtual currency with others normally and unfortunately received the stolen money. Of course, he should not pay it back and should not be held accountable.

But as a criminal lawyer team that has handled a large number of similar cases, we must tell you that such cases are too common in practice.

There is a certain gap between ideal and reality. Rights must be fought for. Even if it is a reasonable demand, it may require constant persistence and effort in practice to have the possibility of successfully defending rights. It is precisely because of this that after seeing a large number of cases where no refunds are made and bail is not granted, we can know how hard it is to achieve a phased victory in this case.

Remember the past and learn from it

The purpose of writing this article is to hope that more friends who have not encountered criminal cases can be prepared in advance - if similar situations unfortunately occur in the future, how should they prevent and deal with them.

Why do you say that? Here we have to mention a case that is in sharp contrast with this case, a case that makes people feel a little regretful.

In the end, because the client did not take compensation actions within the precious gold within 37 days, he is still detained. Admittedly, we can understand the mother's love for her child. It is too difficult for an elderly person with a low level of education to understand why the Web3 project that her son had participated in was suspected of pyramid selling. But sometimes I also wonder if the client will blame his mother? Because after a year or two, when he comes out, he may have lost his job and his girlfriend of many years. Similar situations are not uncommon in criminal cases.

In addition, even if a professional lawyer is found, the case is often hindered due to cognitive differences, communication barriers, and lack of trust. The family members may not understand the professional advice given by the lawyer, and may not be willing to cooperate with the implementation, resulting in missing the best time to deal with it, making it difficult to smoothly advance the case.

Just like Mr. Wang and Mrs. Wang in this case, it is precisely because of the high trust between each other and the lawyers that they can maintain cooperation in the crisis and jointly bear this difficult time. This trust is not established temporarily, but comes from daily communication.

Last words

Finally, I would like to sincerely remind everyone: I hope you will never need a lawyer in your life, but if possible, make a trustworthy lawyer friend first, just in case. Don’t wait until the incident happens, only to find that you are unprepared and no one can help you.

In daily life, you can also spend some time to understand basic legal knowledge, so that when facing sudden criminal risks, you will not panic, not be misled, and have sufficient judgment and psychological preparation, so that you can better protect yourself and your family.