More than $ 4.2 billion in crypto assets were seized by Chinese Police during a massive crackdown on PlusToken Ponzi following a new court ruling.
In its November 19 ruling released on Thursday, the Jiangsu Yancheng Provisional People’s Court first detailed all crypto assets seized by Chinese Police in connection with the PlusToken case.
Breakdown of the Ruling
Chinese law enforcement agencies seized a total of 194,775 BTC, 833,083 ETH, 1.4 million LTC, 27.6 million EOS, 74,167 DASH, 487 million XRP, 6 billion DOGE, 79,581 BCH and 213,724 USDT from seven of the convicts. These assets amount to more than $4.2 billion at current prices.
As part of the ruling, the court stated that the confiscated digital currency will be processed in accordance with the law, and the income and profits from the treasury will be confiscated. However, the Yancheng People’s Court has not specified how many of the confiscated crypto assets were or are being “processed” in what way.
A subordinate district court initially tried the PlusToken criminal case in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, China on September 22. At the time, local media reported that the Ponzi crypto program organizers had defrauded more than 2 million people for more than 50 billion yuan, or $ 7.6 billion.
However, initial verdict details have not gotten publicized as some of the convicts have appealed to a higher court. The Yancheng People’s Court rejected the appeal and joined the District Court in its final decision on November 19 to reveal the details of the criminal case.
Convicting the PlusToken Criminals
According to the verdict, a total of 15 people have got convicted so far. They got sentenced to two to eleven years in prison, with fines ranging from $ 100,000 to $ 1 million.
Police have found evidence of about $ 19 million in money laundering that the criminals or their families spent on luxury cars, two dozen properties in China and insurance policies in Hong Kong.
The final ruling also stated that confiscated digital currency will be processed according to law and income and profits will be passed on to the treasurer.
So China doesn’t just control half of Bitcoin’s hash rate – it’s already a prominent owner. Earlier, there was a report that Chinese Police have stepped up their efforts in recent years by targeting internet-based criminal activity, some of which may be using cryptocurrency to defraud victims or launder income.
Therefore, these events have created a widespread problem of bank account freezes for over-the-counter Chinese sales and consumer offices this year, inflicting additional damage.