Prosecutors in China in Shanghai have cracked a cross-border exchange case involving more than 200 million yuan

According to the People's Procuratorate of Jing 'an District of Shanghai City, China recently filed a public prosecution against Li, who was part of a criminal gang using virtual currencies to illegally exchange foreign exchange on suspicion of illegal business operations. On June 10, the case was heard and the verdict was pronounced in court. A series of illegal business cases involving more than 200 million yuan spanning three years came to an end. In July 2024, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange found during daily monitoring that Company Z had abnormal clues about using virtual currencies to transfer assets across borders for domestic customers, and subsequently transferred it to the public security organs for handling. After investigation, Company Z was registered and established overseas in 2019. It packaged and promoted it in the name of "private bank" and developed a virtual banking App to create the illusion of being formal. However, it did not obtain a foreign exchange business license in my country and was actually engaged in illegal foreign exchange activities. The gang targets high-net-worth people with capital needs such as overseas home purchases, immigration, and study abroad. Through intermediaries, account managers, traders, customer service and other personnel connect with the exchange process. The customer purchases virtual currency in RMB from the virtual currency acceptor and transfers it to Company Z's overseas virtual wallet. The gang then converts the virtual currency into foreign currency overseas and transfers it to the customer's designated overseas account. There is no real cross-border flow of funds throughout the entire process, but settlement is carried out through domestic and overseas capital pools. Company Z collects a 3% exchange service fee and pays a 0.5% benefit fee to the intermediary. A total of 9 people have appeared in this case, and another principal offender is still under investigation. After review, if relevant personnel jointly violated the provisions of national laws, illegally bought and sold foreign exchange, and disrupted financial order, if the circumstances are serious or particularly serious, they should be held criminally responsible for the crime of illegal business operations. The court sentenced five people, including Gao and Li, to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from six years to two years and six months, and fined from 1.5 million yuan to 300,000 yuan; four people, including Chen and Huang, were sentenced to relatively non-prosecution in accordance with the law because of the circumstances of the crime., the amount involved was relatively small, and the voluntary guilty plea.