ChainCatcher news, according to CryptoDnes, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria has dismantled a cryptocurrency scam gang, arresting 53 individuals suspected of cyber crimes, including identity theft and fraud.Currently, authorities have recovered approximately $200,000 in assets, but investigations indicate that deposits related to the operation could be as high as $3 million.

ChainCatcher news, according to DL News, a 26-year-old man from Indiana, James Watt, was sentenced to 3 years of probation for producing approximately 30,000 fake IDs. Court documents show that Watt worked for a fake ID production website for 4 years, receiving 14 bitcoins (approximately $1.4 million) as payment.Law enforcement discovered that he had created a fake Missouri ID for Marvel superhero Thor during a search of his residence. John Childress, the acting prosecutor for the Southern District of Indiana, stated that this case once again demonstrates that despite the increasing acceptance of bitcoin by mainstream financial institutions, it is still used as a tool for illegal transactions. The bitcoins involved in the case were seized by the government last November.

ChainCatcher message, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis stated on X: "Today, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee found the first concrete evidence of Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Rest assured, the Digital Assets Subcommittee will find the relevant parties and hold them accountable."

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, the European judicial organization recently announced the successful dismantling of a multinational money laundering gang that used cryptocurrency to transfer profits among criminal organizations. Investigations revealed that the gang had at least 52 members spread across Spain and Cyprus, conducting up to 6 money laundering transactions per week. In the operation, 23 suspects were arrested, $28 million worth of cryptocurrency was frozen, and approximately $8 million in cash was seized across various locations in Africa.It is reported that the case began in 2023 when Spanish border officials discovered a large amount of funds being transported to Cyprus, with the total amount involved exceeding $100 million. The gang transported cash via commercial flights and public transport, maintaining connections with numerous commercial companies worldwide.

ChainCatcher news, according to China's Legal Daily, to implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party, and to fully leverage the role of the rule of law in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, a seminar on "Disposal of Virtual Currency Involved in Cases" was held in Beijing on January 19, organized by the Law School of Renmin University of China. Nearly 60 participants attended the meeting, including representatives from the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, as well as legal theorists, lawyers, and business representatives.During the meeting, Wang Tuo, head of the Financial Case Handling Team of the Fourth Procuratorial Department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, stated:We must face history and reality, and cannot ignore the decisive role of regulatory documents in curbing speculative behavior in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, we should accelerate top-level design to address various issues related to virtual currency crimes.We need to strengthen the coordination between criminal justice and administrative regulation, adhering to the principle of unified legal order.We should strive to reach a consensus on the nature of virtual currencies, especially ensuring that civil and criminal identifications do not contradict each other.We need to establish scientifically reasonable procedural norms to prevent various risks in judicial disposal.We should emphasize the complementary relationship between technology and case handling.

ChainCatcher news, according to the typical cases of punishing gambling and related crimes published by the Supreme People's Court, the People's Court of Rongchang District, Chongqing, tried the case of defendant Wang Zhi, who operated a casino. He developed agents and gamblers through the "Pomelo Alliance" gambling platform, with a total amount involved reaching 590 million yuan, including over 900 bank card accounts and virtual currency funds. The court sentenced Wang Zhi to four years and five months in prison for the crime of operating a casino and imposed a fine, while also confiscating illegal gains and involved funds.The Supreme People's Court pointed out the typical significance of the case, stating that the people's courts closely cooperate with public security, prosecution, and other departments to implement relevant sealing and freezing measures in accordance with the law, confiscating involved funds amounting to tens of millions of yuan and a large amount of virtual currency.

ChainCatcher message, Trump's loyal fan and Messari founder Ryan Selkis publicly urged Trump on social media to fire those involved in launching the Melania project today. Selkis pointed out the following issues with the project:The project team lacks professional competenceIt may cause significant economic losses and damage to reputationThe project decisions did not adequately consider Trump's interests

ChainCatcher news, Hengnan Public Security has cracked a virtual currency theft case. It was found that the victim, Mr. Peng, found a virtual currency trading channel through social media. During a face-to-face cash transaction after purchasing virtual currency, he was secretly filmed by the criminal gang using a pinhole camera to capture his account login verification code. Subsequently, they used technical means to steal Mr. Peng's account and transfer his assets, ultimately leaving him with nothing. Mr. Peng suffered a total loss of 1.2 million yuan. Currently, 6 criminal suspects have been criminally detained by the public security authorities on suspicion of theft.

ChainCatcher news, according to official sources, Bit Jungle uses the Zhong Kui system for analyzing and investigating blockchain-related cases to assist the police in solving cases similar to the "high-salary fraud case of actor Wang Xing," and has helped capture nearly ten members of the domestic "high-salary fraud" criminal gang.This type of fraud gang mainly uses high-salary jobs as bait to scam recent graduates, actors, models, and those desperately seeking jobs, luring them abroad after successfully defrauding them.Such fraud cases have social hazards that are inhumane, such as "human trafficking" and "violent harm." Bit Jungle is willing to provide public assistance to the police in combating such crimes through various means, including offering the Zhong Kui system, case-solving experts on-site or remote technical support. Police across the country, if you need our help, please directly contact our WeChat assistant.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, Kang Seung-kon, the CEO of South Korean entertainment company Cube Entertainment, has been accused of being involved in a cryptocurrency investment scam. He is alleged to have encouraged acquaintances and colleagues to invest in the cryptocurrency Nestree, which is under the South Korean blockchain company Nestree Media Group. Nestree reached a price of 59 KRW on March 28, 2022, but fell by 34% to 39 KRW within a month, and dropped to single digits by the end of the year.Previously, Cube collaborated with Animoca Brands to establish a joint venture focused on NFTs in 2022.

ChainCatcher news, the gray mother company Digital Currency Group (DCG) announced that it has become a training and validation node for the decentralized AI training platform FLock.io and holds a significant amount of $FLOCK tokens. As a key operator of the training and validation nodes, DCG will be deeply involved in the ecological construction of FLock for the long term, contributing to the development of AI Infra.Since the launch of the $FLOCK token mainnet, FLock.io has attracted increasing attention and participation from institutions. In addition to DCG, other well-known institutional node operators include Tensorplex (one of the miners in the Bittensor network) and A41 (a Korean node operator), further strengthening FLock.io's leading position in the decentralized AI field.

ChainCatcher news, the South Korean court has made a ruling against a gang involved in illegal foreign exchange transfers. Four members of the gang were sentenced for illegally transferring approximately 400 billion won in foreign exchange by exploiting price differences in virtual currencies. The main culprit A (43 years old) was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison, while the other two defendants received sentences of 2 years and 2 months and 2 years, respectively. One defendant was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months, with a 2-year probation and 160 hours of community service.The court stated that the gang profited by having Japanese investors commission the purchase of virtual currencies in Japan and reselling them in South Korea, taking advantage of the relatively lower prices of virtual currencies in Korea. The total amount of foreign exchange they illegally transferred was approximately 400 billion won, with illegal gains of about 27 billion won.The court found that the defendants obstructed bank remittance operations through means such as forging invoices and contracts, indicating a strong organizational nature and severe nature of the criminal behavior.

ChainCatcher news, Economic Daily published an article titled "Strict Measures to Root Out Market Manipulation," which points out that departments such as market regulation, communication management, financial supervision, and public security need to strengthen data connectivity and sharing, enhance governance in key areas, and ensure smooth coordination between punishment and enforcement.At the same time, it is essential to make good use of internet technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and blockchain to accurately identify the capital chains and information flows involved in stock price manipulation, strengthen the supervision of the entire trading process, "pull out the radish and bring out the mud," discover and investigate each case, and deter the whole area, allowing those who dare to break the law to reveal their true colors, learn a lesson, and remember the consequences.

ChainCatcher news, according to Phoenix News, the Hong Kong police recently dismantled a scam group that used deepfake technology to lure others into investing in virtual currencies through social media platforms, involving approximately 34 million HKD.The Hong Kong Police Commercial Crime Bureau arrested 31 individuals, aged between 20 and 34, some of whom claimed to be students and unemployed, based on intelligence last week in two industrial buildings in Kowloon Bay, related to the same scam group, and seized their pre-written "scripts." The group would recruit young people looking to "make quick money," training them to create accounts on dating platforms with fake identities, pretending to have good looks and a luxurious lifestyle, and getting to know individuals from overseas, including Taiwan and East Asia, chatting according to the "script." After understanding the other party's background, they would cater to their interests and develop into online lovers, even using deepfake technology for video calls, subsequently luring the other party to invest in virtual currencies, claiming substantial returns, and asking them to deposit into fake platforms. Once the group received the virtual currency, they would immediately transfer it away and cut off contact with the victims.Hong Kong Police Commercial Crime Bureau Acting Chief Superintendent Kong Hing-fun stated: "They rented two scam centers located next to each other in Kowloon Bay to disperse risks and increase confidentiality. Most importantly, we noticed that these two scam centers operated in two shifts, aiming to continuously attract more victims day and night. Never think that participating in some tasks of a criminal group is just a minor issue; even if you are only assigned to meet victims online without direct contact with virtual currency investment work, it is still illegal."The police stated that this scam group has been operating for at least a year, with criminal profits exceeding 34 million HKD. The mastermind of the scam group, the center's head, and key members, a total of five individuals, have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, and were brought to the Eastern Magistrates' Court on Monday.

ChainCatcher news, according to the announcement from the Supreme People's Court, the results of the major topics for judicial research in 2024 have been published, among which Topic Seven is "Research on the Disposal of Virtual Currencies Involved in Cases." The topic is divided into three research groups:• Research Group 1: Lin Wei from Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Wang Zhongwei from the Chongqing High People's Court, Yuan Shengqiang from the Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court (Topic Number: GFZDKT2024B02-1)• Research Group 2: Xue Chunjiang from the Beijing Third Intermediate People's Court, Yang Dong from Renmin University of China (Topic Number: GFZDKT2024B02-2)• Research Group 3: Zhan Xuwei from the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province, Wu Xuebin from Shenzhen University (Topic Number: GFZDKT2024B02-3)

ChainCatcher news, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced that regarding the first-instance guilty verdict against former CEO Lee Sang-joon for misconduct related to listing coins, the company "will once again confirm the transparency and fairness of the trading review process and continue to make improvements."Bithumb stated that the two types of virtual assets mentioned in the trial have never been listed on Bithumb and confirmed that they have never been submitted to the coin listing review committee.Bithumb representatives emphasized: "The company's coin listing procedure is conducted through an independent coin listing review committee involving external experts, which is not a structure that specific personnel, including relevant executives and employees, can influence. The coin listing process maintains and strengthens fairness through a unified application channel on the official website and strict internal reviews."

ChainCatcher news, according to the official WeChat account of Jingde County People's Court, the Jingde Court recently concluded a case involving the organization and leadership of pyramid selling activities related to virtual currency.It is reported that Xu (handled in another case) planned to develop the "Mobius" project, which involved issuing and promoting MBUS (Mobius) virtual currency, cards, etc. Several individuals required participants to purchase and hold MBUS coins, NFT cards, and MSS coins under the guise of investing in virtual currency and derivative project trading. They actively developed downline personnel through "referral" methods and organized a hierarchical structure in a certain order, directly or indirectly using the number of developed personnel, the amount and quantity of purchased virtual currency and cards as the basis for compensation or rebates, defrauding participants of a total of over 964,300 USDT (1 USDT is approximately equal to 1 USD, equivalent to about 6.39 million RMB).After the incident, it was identified that the wallet addresses of MBUS coin holders recorded 29,280 entries, with a total referral hierarchy of 48 levels. The individuals involved, including Li, Xiang, Huang, and four others, were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from two to three years, with probation and fines imposed.