Chinese Shanxi Court Uncovers USDT-related Fraud Case, Two Accomplices Sentenced Heavily

**Taiyuan Procuratorate Convicts Two in Virtual Currency Money Laundering Tied to Investment Scam** On December 2, the Wanbolin District People’s Procuratorate in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, announced the first-instance verdict for Chen and Li, who were charged with concealing and disguising criminal proceeds. The court adopted the procuratorate’s sentencing recommendations, sentencing the pair to 2 years and 6 months, and 1 year and 6 months in prison respectively, plus fines. The case traces to an investment scam targeting Ms. Zhang in May this year. She connected with “Lin Hao” (at large) on a short-video platform, where he falsely claimed to be an employee of a well-known company with insider stock price information. He promised a 5% per-period return via a supposed internal company website—but required transactions in U.S. dollars. Ms. Zhang was told to exchange RMB cash for dollars through a designated merchant, then transfer funds to a “comrade’s” account (later revealed to be a scammer’s Tether, USDT, account). On May 21, Ms. Zhang carried 1.47 million RMB in cash to a Taiyuan hotel to exchange for dollars. Acting on their superior’s orders, Chen and Li met her. Ms. Zhang shared the USDT account with Chen, who transferred 202,328 USDT (equivalent to ~1.47 million RMB) in three installments. Chen and Li then took the RMB cash and delivered it to their superior. When “Lin Hao” failed to deposit funds into her account as promised, Ms. Zhang reported the scam to police. The procuratorate reviewed case files, consulted investigators, and proposed key investigative steps: obtain chat records to prove Chen and Li knew the funds were suspicious; trace USDT’s final flow via virtual currency platform data to verify their role in moving criminal proceeds. Police transferred the case to the procuratorate on August 17. During review, the procuratorate found Chen and Li admitted they “knew the fund operations were overly secretive and involved large cash transactions, which raised red flags.” They later received a 30,000 RMB bribe—sufficient proof they knew the funds were criminal proceeds. Their help with the “cash → USD → USDT” conversion constituted concealing and disguising criminal proceeds. After the verdict, the procuratorate issued a risk alert to relevant units, highlighting typical “investment scam + virtual currency money laundering” traits. It also ran anti-fraud campaigns with the local Anti-Fraud Center and other agencies. Wanbolin District Chief Prosecutor Sun Yinpeng said the procuratorate will continue deepening the “investigation-prosecution coordination + precise prosecution + social governance” mechanism for new telecom and online crimes, cracking down on both scams and their criminal “accomplices” to protect public property. (Source: Net of Justice)