BlockBeats News, March 20, Recently, a first-instance judgment was announced for a case of concealing and disguising criminal proceeds prosecuted by the People’s Procuratorate of Yuetang District, Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, China. A new money laundering chain with Maotai liquor transactions as a cover and cryptocurrency as a channel was completely cut off, involving more than 6.84 million RMB, and all 8 defendants were sentenced.
The gang had clear division of labor and strong concealment. Chen coordinated with the upstream through overseas encrypted communication software to receive telecommunications fraud proceeds, contacted the “U Merchant” to complete the cryptocurrency exchange and circulation; Xie was responsible for providing tools for the crime and summarizing fund details; Huang used Maotai liquor transactions as a cover, using genuine transaction shells to hide the track of fund transfer; the remaining members assisted in fund settlement and information transmission.
The gang used fake Maotai liquor transactions as a “whitewashing” process, disguising overseas fraud proceeds as legitimate business income, exchanging them into cryptocurrency to return to the upstream, and extracting an 8% illegal commission for each “whitewashing” transaction. In December 2023, as a victim reported the case, this dark gray industrial chain hidden under the guise of famous liquor transactions was exposed.
After the case was reported, the People’s Procuratorate of Yuetang District intervened in the investigation in advance, guiding the public security organs to comb through nearly 20 million RMB of fund flows and a massive amount of electronic data, achieving a full-chain crackdown and all-element evidence collection. The court finally convicted Xie and 7 other accomplices of the crime of concealing and disguising criminal proceeds, sentencing them to 2 to 6 years in prison; Liang, with a less serious offense, was sentenced to 1 year in prison with a 1-year probation. (Huasheng Online)
