1.47 million in cash exchanged for USDT to help a fraud gang with Money Laundering, two individuals sentenced to a maximum of 2.5 years.

[Block Rhythm] Recently, a special case was judged in Taiyuan, Shanxi - two individuals helped a fraud gang transfer illicit funds using USD and were sentenced to two and a half years and one and a half years respectively.

The situation is quite typical: in May of this year, Ms. Zhang met a person named “Lin Hao” on a short video platform. The other party spun a story, saying that his comrade worked at a well-known company and could obtain insider stock information, making a profit of 5% for each issue by buying on the internal website. However, there was a condition - it had to be traded in USD, and she had to find designated merchants to exchange cash for USD, which would then be transferred to her comrade's USD account.

On May 21, Ms. Zhang brought 1.47 million in cash to a hotel in the Wanbailin District to exchange currency. At this time, Chen and Li appeared; they were sent by their superior to make the connection. Ms. Zhang transferred the USD account ( given by “Lin Hao” through Chen, which was actually a Tether wallet address ), to the superior. The superior sent over 200,000 USDT to that address in three installments, which at the time's exchange rate was roughly 1.47 million RMB. After receiving the cash, Chen and Li handed it over to the superior.

As a result, “Lin Hao” did not transfer the money to Ms. Zhang's account at all. By the time Ms. Zhang realized, the money was already gone.

The prosecutor seized the key point during the case: checking the chat records to prove that the two knew the money was of improper origin; investigating the funding chain by tracking the final destination of USDT through transaction platform data, solidifying the fact that they assisted in transferring the illicit funds.

Chen and Li also admitted in their statements: “This method of operation is too concealed, and it involves large cash transactions, which definitely has problems.” The two of them later took a benefit fee of 30,000 yuan. The prosecutor's office determined that they assisted in completing the cross-border conversion chain of “cash → USD → USD”, which was to conceal and disguise criminal proceeds.

After the verdict was delivered, the procuratorate issued risk warnings to relevant units, summarizing the characteristics of the “investment scam + virtual currency money laundering” tactics, and held several presentations in cooperation with the anti-fraud center. The chief prosecutor stated that for this type of new telecommunications fraud-related crime, not only should the fraud gangs be targeted, but accomplices must also be severely punished.

This case serves as a wake-up call for the crypto community: virtual currency itself is technologically neutral, but once it is used as a money laundering tool, every link in the process could constitute a crime. Ordinary people should really avoid large cash exchanges for USD.