ChainCatcher news, according to China News Network, the Yunlin District Prosecutor's Office in Taiwan recently cracked a fraud case, with the victims losing more than 134 million New Taiwan dollars (approximately 4.2 million US dollars). It is reported that last July, the police arrested a 30-year-old "runner" (referring to someone who specifically helps fraudsters withdraw scam funds) named Chen, who was suspected of committing fraud using virtual currency. Subsequently, another 28-year-old "runner" named Chen was arrested, and the local court approved a request for detention.The prosecution stated that it was discovered that the involved "runner" named Yu was a member of the Bamboo Union's Mingren Society, and his superior, Wu, led dozens of Taiwanese "runner" groups, having managed more than 40 virtual currency wallets. The prosecution indicated that more than 20 searches were conducted throughout the case, seizing over 90 million dollars in cash and virtual currency worth more than 50 million dollars. A total of 33 individuals involved in the case were prosecuted for crimes including fraud, leaking secrets, forgery, and money laundering.

ChainCatcher news, according to a report from Reference News Network, the Changhua police announced on the 10th that they have cracked a fraud group led by a man with the surname Lin. This group conducted scams using virtual currency, and after investigation, it was found that 68 people were defrauded, with a total amount of approximately 100 million New Taiwan dollars (1 New Taiwan dollar is about 0.22 Chinese yuan). Nine members of the fraud group have been transferred to the Changhua District Prosecutor's Office for investigation, and two individuals, including Lin, have been approved by the prosecutor to be detained and prohibited from meeting.Zhang Anjin, the deputy captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Changhua County Police Bureau, stated during a media interview that in September 2023, a man with the surname Zhan went to the police station to report that he had been lured by an online acquaintance to join a social media investment group, where he was required to meet in person to purchase virtual currency with cash, and then transfer the virtual currency to a wallet address provided by customer service personnel of the investment platform. When Mr. Zhan was about to withdraw cash, he was told that he needed to reinvest 10% of the profits as a "tax" in order to withdraw the cash. He realized he had been scammed after losing 3.4 million New Taiwan dollars and reported it to the police.

ChainCatcher news, seven top operators of the virtual currency exchange V Global have been prosecuted for fraud amounting to 2 trillion won (approximately 1.4 billion USD) and were sentenced to imprisonment by the appellate court.On August 22, the Suwon High Court overturned the first instance's 8-year sentence. Yang and others were accused of defrauding approximately 2.2 trillion won from about 52,000 members through false promises. The remaining six operators maintained the first instance's ruling, receiving sentences of 3 years in prison with a 5-year probation. Yang and the other two were taken into custody immediately.

ChainCatcher news, according to Ming Pao, the Hong Kong police have launched an operation codenamed "Kongding" in the Sham Shui Po district over the past two weeks to combat fraud and money laundering cases, arresting 100 people, most of whom are puppet account holders. This involves laundering the criminal proceeds from 82 fraud cases, amounting to 180 million HKD, with the largest virtual currency investment fraud case exceeding 20 million HKD.It is reported that among those arrested, 3 men and 1 woman have been charged with obtaining property by deception and money laundering. They appeared in the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court from the 7th to the 18th of this month, while the others have been granted bail and are required to report to the police in June.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Paper, the first STRK cryptocurrency fraud case in Changzhi, Shanxi has been successfully solved. Recently, the Cybersecurity Team of the Xiangyuan County Public Security Bureau received a report from a victim, stating that 40,000 STRK coins obtained through the official STRK development program were fraudulently claimed by others. With the support of the Cybersecurity Division of the Changzhi Public Security Bureau, the Xiangyuan cyber police, based on relevant clues, ultimately identified the suspect as a Lan from Meizhou, Guangdong Province. On April 25, special police officers went to Guangdong Province to conduct investigations, and after monitoring, successfully arrested the suspect Lan, seizing 2 mobile phones and a computer on site.Investigation revealed that the suspect Lan purchased numerous Tg accounts and Discord accounts, generated a large number of STRK receiving addresses, and simultaneously searched for relevant proof of work submitted by others, impersonating others and submitting over 40 ECMP forms, fraudulently claiming 40,000 STRK coins belonging to the victim and transferring them to his own OKX wallet, which were then exchanged for 91,000 USDT (equivalent to over 637,000 yuan).Currently, the suspect Lan has been subjected to criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law, and the case is under further investigation.

ChainCatcher news reports that recently, the People's Procuratorate of Huqiu District, Suzhou City, handled a virtual currency fraud case involving over 700,000 victims nationwide, with the amount involved reaching as high as 160 million yuan. After deducting costs for promotional products, referral rebates, and other expenses totaling over 97 million yuan, the suspect, Fang, actually profited about 69 million yuan.It is reported that the fraud project is named "Global Coin," falsely claiming that this virtual currency was launched by a certain group in Hong Kong using the latest blockchain technology, and could be exchanged for RMB at a certain ratio once listed. Among them, the "membership model" is the "key to success," where only by becoming a higher-level member can one possess more Global Coins and larger-capacity mining machines to produce Global Coins. At the same time, members can develop downlines to earn rebates.During the review and prosecution stage, Fang and his defense lawyer argued that his actions were mainly for selling goods, and the fees for membership upgrades were in exchange for products such as rice and cooking oil, while Global Coins and mining machines were merely complimentary "game props." The People's Procuratorate of Huqiu District, Suzhou City, after review, believed that the suspect Fang fabricated the claim that Global Coins could be traded on the market, deceiving victims into spending money to upgrade their membership to obtain Global Coins, leading victims to mistakenly believe they could profit from the trading of Global Coins, thus disposing of their property and incurring losses, which meets the elements of the crime of fraud. Regarding the paid gifts of oil, rice, and other items, from the perspective of the transaction purpose, the victims' purpose in disposing of their property was to obtain Global Coins, not to purchase the aforementioned items. From the payment process, the victims decided to upgrade their membership based on the defendant's deception, and only after deciding to upgrade did the interface for selecting gifts pop up. The payment amount was unrelated to the selected products, and there was no prior negotiation or pricing regarding the purchase of goods, which does not conform to the characteristics of commodity transactions. In summary, it should be classified as fraud.After the incident, the police promptly froze over 50 million yuan in Fang's account, and the ten properties he purchased with these illegal gains were also sealed by the public security authorities. Recently, the court sentenced Fang to thirteen years and six months in prison for fraud and imposed a fine of three million yuan. Currently, the public security, prosecution, and judiciary have established a property disposal team, and the refund work is being carried out in an orderly manner.

ChainCatcher news, the Hong Kong police have dismantled a local scam group disguised as a London gold and virtual investment business. This scam group utilized 50 shell companies and puppet accounts to launder 320 million Hong Kong dollars in fraudulent funds over the past year.The Chief Inspector of the East Kowloon Major Crime Unit, Duan Yuheng, stated that the scam group used cold calling to promote investment projects such as London gold and virtual currencies to lure victims into participation. Once the victims fell for the scam, group members would claim to transfer cash or funds to specific accounts. These application accounts were merely a virtual trading platform and had no relation to the London gold and virtual currencies available in the market. Currently, the Hong Kong police have arrested 19 men and women on suspicion of "money laundering" and "conspiracy to commit fraud."

ChainCatcher news, the Dongyang People's Court issued a notice on the return of funds in the fraud case involving Zhou Sheng, He Yan, and others. The notice states that based on the effective criminal judgment documents such as Zhe 0783 Criminal First 560 and the information verification registration, the first round of fund return work for the involved funds that have been collected is being carried out. The specific matters are announced as follows: the registration for this fund return work will start from the date of the announcement and will last for 1 month. The recipients of the fund return are investors who have invested in the fraudulent digital currency platforms SIE (later renamed BTUE), CFEX, LKF, GDbit, etc., and have overall losses. The amount of this return is calculated based on the amount of loss and the funds that have been collected, determining a uniform refund ratio.It is reported that this fund return will be conducted through the release on WeChat official accounts, links, and scanning QR codes to enter the APP for information registration, with backend review and confirmation. After passing the review, the payment will be assisted by the Dongyang branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.In August 2019, the Dongyang Public Security Bureau launched an investigation into digital currency fraud platforms such as SIE, CFEX, LKF, and GDBIT, and key members of this fraud group were successively captured and brought to justice. This fraud group fabricated activities related to blockchain technology development, developing digital currency trading platforms through a technical team, forming a complete fraud industrial chain.In September 2021, according to the Zhejiang Procuratorate, all 171 defendants involved in this digital currency fraud series case, with an amount involved reaching 380 million yuan, were tried and sentenced.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Honghuagang Public Security WeChat official account, recently, the "7·09" special investigation team of the Honghuagang Public Security Bureau of Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, cracked a money laundering case using virtual digital currency, involving an amount of over 38 million yuan. The police have taken criminal coercive measures against 20 criminal suspects and escorted them back to Zunyi, seizing 118 mobile phones used in the crime, 3 computers, and 32 bank cards, with the involved amount reaching over 38 million yuan. The case is currently under further investigation.It is reported that on June 19, the victim, Wu, reported to the police that he was scammed under the pretext of a refund for purchasing concert tickets online, with the involved amount exceeding 38 million yuan. The Honghuagang police identified a gang in Meizhou, Guangdong, that was involved in bank card fraud, as well as a money laundering group in Quanzhou, Fujian, that used virtual currency U coin for transactions.

ChainCatcher news, reporters learned from the Sichuan Provincial High People's Court that recently, the Pengshan District Court in Meishan City adjudicated a case involving fraud through a self-made fake virtual currency trading platform. Seven defendants, including Hu and Yang, were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from twelve years and six months to two years and ten months, with three years of probation, and were fined for the crimes of fraud and concealing or disguising criminal proceeds.From March 2020 to December 2020, Hu and Yang, along with others, utilized the registered Chengdu Jiarongteng Software Information Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Jiarongteng Company) to illegally operate a fake virtual currency investment platform called "Shengda Contract." They deceived customers into purchasing Tether by promising "capital protection investment and liquidation capital protection," then exchanged it for the platform's proprietary fake virtual currency PTC, and realized profits and losses by purchasing Bitcoin and other virtual currencies with PTC on the platform.The criminals controlled the backend data to manipulate the trends of virtual currency candlestick charts and trading results, falsely claiming that hackers had stolen coins to cover up the funding gap, defrauding customers of 1,443,981 Tether, equivalent to over 9.4 million yuan. Among the victims were classmates and friends of the defendants, and many were employees of Jiarongteng Company. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, the first instance of the H Digital Exchange virtual currency fraud case prosecuted by the Shenzhen People's Procuratorate has been judged, with 15 defendants sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 3 to 13 years. This series of cases involves nearly 1,500 victims, with a total fraud amount reaching 220 million yuan.It is reported that the defendants illegally established the H Digital Exchange platform through servers located overseas and operated the trading of their self-created U coin to defraud investors. They distributed enticing and deceptive promotional materials for the platform by organizing events such as the "Chain Business Festival" and manipulated the price of U coin from the initial issuance price of 0.25 yuan per coin all the way up to 1.31 yuan per coin. Subsequently, the price of U coin continuously plummeted to nearly zero market value, until it became untradeable. (source link)

According to ChainCatcher news, as reported by Coindesk, an investment manager from Ohio, Rathnakishore Giri, was arrested on Friday for allegedly running a cryptocurrency investment scam that raised at least $10 million from investors. Giri allegedly portrayed himself as an expert in cryptocurrency trading, proficient in Bitcoin derivatives, misleading investors. According to the indictment, Giri falsely promised investors that the funds they invested with him would yield substantial returns, with no risk to the principal.Giri is currently facing five counts of wire fraud, and if convicted, each count could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years. (Source link)

According to Chain Catcher news, citing Taiwan's Central News Agency, a money-sucking group led by a 28-year-old man with the surname Lin in Taiwan is suspected of attracting victims to invest in virtual currencies with a high return pitch of 4% monthly profit. Over the past two years, the group has handled over 100 million NTD (New Taiwan Dollar), with many professional soldiers falling victim. The Kaohsiung City police have arrested four individuals and are processing them according to the law.On the 26th, the Kaohsiung City police stated that in February this year, they received reports from the public about a 28-year-old man with the surname Wang and his 30-year-old wife with the surname Chen, who were suspected of attracting victims with promises of a 4% monthly profit and guaranteed returns through investments in titanium coins and physical stores. After gathering evidence, the police tracked the financial flow and accomplices.After about six months of investigation, the police executed searches and arrests on July 6 and August 23, 2022, and subsequently tracked down the 28-year-old man with the surname Lin and a 32-year-old woman with the surname Hsu. The homes of Wang and Chen were adorned with many slogans, expressing hopes that their assets would exceed 500 million NTD, with a net monthly income of 10 million NTD, buying sports cars and luxury houses, and even reminding themselves to donate to orphanages and other social welfare organizations, which is quite ironic. The police have processed the four individuals for violations of the "Banking Act," fraud, and the "Anti-Money Laundering Act," among other charges. (Source link)