English Translation:

Jinchang Intermediate People's Court recently sentenced ten defendants to prison terms ranging from ten months to one year for aiding information network crimes in two cases involving telecommunication fraud. The court actually recovered over 1.19 million yuan in illegal proceeds.

According to reports, in 2022, Shen (surname withheld) raised funds to purchase computers, IoT cards, and other equipment for illegal profits. Shen recruited Li, Chen, and four others to join their operation. They then rented houses in Hefei, Anhui, and established a USDT (Tether) trading studio. They used Telegram to create illegal off-exchange trading groups and made profits by buying USDT at a low price and selling it at a higher price.

The five individuals repeatedly took risks, knowing that the USDT they received originated from online gambling, telecommunication fraud, and other gray industries. They still helped telecommunication fraudsters convert USDT to and from RMB at a high exchange rate for payment settlement. Shen also contacted downstream currency merchants like Li (surname withheld) to settle payments through Alipay, WeChat transfers, bank deposits, and withdrawals according to the payment methods specified by the upstream criminal group.

By the time the case broke, the defendants had profited over 880,000 yuan. Over 5.9 million yuan of the funds involved were stolen from residents in Yongchang County's Chengguan Town, including Meng (surname withheld), who were victims of online scams related to virtual currency investment and online brushing activities. All of these funds were transferred to accounts used by Shen and his group for USDT transactions.

The court found that Shen and his group's actions of using virtual currency trading to help telecommunication fraudsters transfer funds went beyond the scope of purely virtual currency operations. These actions should be considered a key link in the comprehensive chain of combatting telecommunication network fraud and should be punished.