A criminal group in Fujian, China is using USDT for money laundering, with involved transactions totaling over 13.3 billion RMB.

BlockBeats News, September 5th. In the first half of this year, the People's Court of Hanjiang District, Fujian Province, China, ruled on a virtual currency-related criminal case brought by the court. Yan, Zheng, Lin, and others used the virtual currency USDT (Tether) to establish an underground foreign exchange trading network, solicited customers through overseas chat apps, and illegally exchanged RMB and foreign currency using "U coins" as a medium, with the bank account transactions involved exceeding 13.3 billion RMB. It was found that the amount of illegal foreign exchange transactions was 25.62 million RMB. The group also withdrew cash exceeding 478 million RMB from banks in various places in Fujian Province, purchased "U coins," transferred them to upstream criminal wallets to "launder" cross-border crime proceeds, and earned the price difference.

Suspect Lin denied all criminal facts after being brought to the case. The court guided the public security organs to extract three key voice recordings sent from the account on the same case's co-defendant's phone and commissioned a judicial appraisal institute to conduct voiceprint comparison. After appraisal, it was confirmed that the detected voice was from the same person as Lin's voice sample, ultimately establishing the evidentiary relevance between the involved account and the defendant Lin, solidifying the basis of the accusation. Lin, who had previously pleaded not guilty, pleaded guilty in court.

Facing qualitative disputes, the court organized multiple consultations between public security and the court to reach a consensus. In the end, the court convicted Yan, Zheng, Lin, and 15 others of the crimes of illegal business operations and aiding Internet crime activities, sentencing them to 8 months to 3 years in prison, along with fines. (Putian Network)