The Tongliang Court in China has given prison terms to 21 persons, including the key orchestrators of a $300 million USDT money laundering case.
The gigantic crypto money laundering operation, which took place from November 2020 to late April 2021, was primarily managed by Jiang Moumou and Zheng Moumou.
Jiang and Zheng enlisted 19 additional accomplices to execute the money laundering scheme, with each person playing a specific role.
Jiang Moumou has been sentenced to six years and three months in prison, along with a fine of 500,000 RMB ($68,000) for his part in hiding the proceeds of the crime.
Zheng Moumou, another principal defendant, received a six-year prison sentence and a fine of 500,000 RMB. The other 19 members involved were given fixed-term imprisonments ranging from one to two years and six months, along with monetary penalties.
To evade detection, the group bypassed online trading platforms and conducted transactions at prices significantly different from market rates. They accumulated stablecoin USDT converted from the proceeds of various online crimes, including fraud and online gambling, committed by other criminals.
The ill-gotten funds were routed through offline Bitpie collection wallets and then sold on virtual currency trading platforms. To legitimize their transactions, the group concocted reasons such as withdrawing project funds and migrant workers’ wages.
This enabled them to carry out cash withdrawals from bank counters across several provinces and cities, including Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shanghai. Once the cash was obtained, it was carefully packed into trolley cases and backpacks, ready for transport.
The funds were then transported by plane to locations in Fujian Province, particularly Xiamen and Anxi, where they were handed over to the designated receivers. Each cash transfer equaled tens of millions of yuan. The group managed to transfer over 2.25 billion yuan ($300 million) to overseas entities using this method. Their total profits from the intricate money laundering scheme exceeded a staggering 22.62 million yuan.
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