Virtual currency "mining" is illegal! Suzhou issued the industry's first virtual currency crime investigation guide.

Since virtual currency transactions were listed as illegal financial activities by the central bank and other ministries and commissions in September last year, public security and procuratorial organs in various parts of China have disclosed a number of illegal cases involving the settlement of virtual currency transactions. Recently, in addition to treating the transaction and settlement of virtual currency as illegal acts, related mining activities have also been classified as illegal and criminal acts.

On April 28th, it was learned from a case published by relevant law enforcement departments in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province that Huzhou Wuxing District Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, Wuxing District Development and Reform Bureau and Xing Wu Branch of Huzhou Public Security Bureau recently investigated and dealt with a major virtual currency "mining" case worth one million yuan, which became the first major case uncovered since Huzhou promoted the reform of "great comprehensive integration".

It is understood that in the previous April 12, the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission monitored through the daily monitoring platform that there were some abnormal IP address logins in Shangqiang Village, Daixi Town, Wuxing District, which was suspected to be illegal virtual currency "mining" behavior, and immediately notified the relevant situation to the Development and Reform Bureau of Wuxing District. Subsequently, the Development and Reform Bureau of Wuxing District, the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of Wuxing District and the Xing Wu Public Security Bureau formed a special action team to conduct one-by-one investigation in Shangqiang Village, Daixi Town, Wuxing District, and finally seized hundreds of mining machines in a humble rental house in Nanyuan Natural Village, Shangqiang Village.

Coincidentally, on April 27th, the official micro "Xiangcheng Procuratorial Release" of Xiangcheng District Procuratorate in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province showed that the procuratorial organs in this district recently issued the "Guidelines for the Investigation of Crimes Involving Virtual Currency" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), which provided guidance for standardizing the investigation work in view of the characteristics of virtual currency, such as strong concealment, fast cross-border circulation and diversified value exchange.

"From March this year, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued the first case of over 100 million yuan virtual currency network investment fraud, and related cases published in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places, the frequency of investigating crimes in this field has increased significantly. It is also noteworthy that in the past, virtual currency mining was listed as an elimination project, and the latest guidelines issued by Zhejiang directly characterized it as an illegal act of virtual currency trading. It can be seen that the state has intensified its efforts to clean up and rectify the virtual currency field, and the momentum has not diminished. "

"Mining" transactions are also illegal.

According to the official case released by Huzhou, on April 15, the local law enforcement team admitted that the parties were engaged in virtual currency "mining" in the rented house in Shangqiang Village, Daixi Town, Wuxing District, and exchanged virtual currency such as Ethereum on overseas networks.

Subsequently, Wuxing District Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau rushed to Hangzhou to cooperate with Zhejiang Branch of National Computer Network and Information Security Management Center to conduct technical appraisal and evidence fixation by high-tech means for the first time. After identification, it is confirmed that the network equipment held by the parties belongs to virtual currency mining equipment;

On April 18, members of the Law Enforcement Team of the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of Wuxing District, staff of the Development and Reform Bureau of Wuxing District and staff of Huzhou Deep Blue Computer Technology Development Co., Ltd. went to Daixi Town to conduct on-site inspection on the remaining equipment (including USB flash drives and removable hard disks). Upon verification, 12 1 set of equipment has virtual currency "mining" data (with a total value of nearly 3 million yuan). The law enforcement team made a list of the number of equipment on site and handed it over to the parties for signature and confirmation. At present, the notice of administrative punishment in this case has been served on the parties. It is reported that Wuxing District of Huzhou has investigated and dealt with four corresponding illegal cases, and seized 132 mining equipment, involving 3.5 million yuan, which can free up about 330 tons of standard coal.

"This case revealed a message that' mining' transactions have been regarded as illegal activities. In recent years, the policies of mining countries have been gradually tightened, from encouragement to elimination, and then to restrictions on illegal activities. Even if it is not traded after mining, its high energy consumption nature does not meet the overall goal of carbon neutrality in China, so it is foreseeable that domestic mining will be strictly controlled. "

Wang Heng, a senior cryptocurrency market researcher in Shanghai, said that the risk of illegal crimes in virtual currency transactions is getting higher and higher. In the past, it was only aimed at ICO, which was extremely harmful to society. Therefore, the supervision and public security departments also list it as the same crime as pyramid scheme fraud and illegal absorption of public deposits. Now' mining' transactions are also illegal, although they may not be subject to criminal punishment, but from the perspective of transaction amount, economic punishment is essential.

The industry's first virtual currency crime investigation guide.

In recent years, the number and amount of crimes about virtual currency transactions in the Yangtze River Delta region are not small, and there are also many cases that exceed 100 million yuan.

During March15 this year, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau officially disclosed the first online pyramid scheme crime case in Shanghai, and arrested more than one suspect 10, involving more than 6,543.8 billion yuan.

On June 5438+065438+ 10, 2020, the Intermediate People's Court of Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province made a second-instance criminal ruling on a network pyramid scheme involving more than 7.7 billion yuan, dismissed the appellant's appeal against the first-instance result, and sentenced several suspects such as Gao Yudong to fixed-term imprisonment and economic penalties for organizing and leading pyramid schemes. This case has also become the largest virtual currency transaction case in China so far.

On April 17, the guidelines issued by Xiangcheng District Procuratorate of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province also indicated that in recent years, the hospital has handled many criminal cases involving virtual currency, pyramid schemes and telecommunication network fraud cases involving virtual currency, involving billions of yuan.

It is understood that Article 14 of the Guidelines analyzes and summarizes the problems of property seizure, evidence collection and property disposal in virtual currency cases, introduces third-party technology companies to solve technical problems such as the flow of virtual currency funds, and strives to standardize and improve the evidence collection behavior of public security organs. Taking electronic data as the focus of investigation in cases involving virtual currency, and based on standardization and normalization, the procedures of handling cases such as preservation of original storage media, on-site extraction of electronic data, remote inspection, and electronic data inspection and identification are specified in detail, which can guide the investigation from the aspects of clue collection, evidence extraction, and amount determination, and has strong operability.

At the same time, the "Guidelines" have also intensified efforts to recover losses and anti-money laundering, adhering to the concept of never letting criminals get economic benefits, and demanding that the money involved be fully recovered to maximize the recovery of victims' losses. For example, for criminal suspects to transfer virtual currency and engage in money laundering crimes through the platform, it is suggested that the investigation organ monitor the flow of funds in real time, lock in the final destination of funds and accurately identify the amount involved.

In this regard, Changshou Sakura, the procurator of xiangcheng district Procuratorate, said that the black and gray industrial chain of virtual currency money laundering is constantly evolving, showing a trend of scale and specialization. The digital economy has a great influence on the production and operation mode of enterprises, the lifestyle and consumption mode of citizens. It is necessary to improve the accuracy of procuratorial performance around the expectations of enterprises and the needs of the masses. The formulation of "Guiding Opinions" pays attention to social effects and is also an effort made from the perspective of protecting citizens' rights and interests.

"This" Guide to the Investigation of Virtual Currency Crimes "may be the first systematic document in the industry, because virtual currency crimes are mainly carried out through the Internet, and its concealment and cross-border transactions are more energy-consuming than ordinary economic investigation and criminal investigation cases. The experience of case investigation can be concretized, which is convenient for our public security and legal departments to carry out criminal investigations in this field. "