A Chinese official has been sentenced to life in prison for selling state secrets for more than RMB 1 million for causing significant losses in cryptocurrency investments.
On November 8, a Chinese public official was sentenced to life in prison for selling state secrets to a foreign entity to make up for his cryptocurrency investment losses.
The official, named Wang, was convicted of providing state secret information to a foreign agent in exchange for over $1 million in financial compensation for cryptocurrency transactions.
Wang Sentenced to Life in Prison for Selling State Secrets: Is China's Government Still Strict on Cryptocurrency?
The People's Court issued a judgment stating that Wang colluded with a foreign intelligence agency and accumulated more than RMB 1 million as payment for sensitive information through cryptocurrency transactions.
The court said he had reportedly racked up significant debt from unsuccessful cryptocurrency investments.
In order to solve the financial difficulties, Wang looked for part-time jobs in Internet forums, inadvertently exposing his identity as a civil servant.
According to local news reports, this led to contact with foreign agents who recruited him to provide classified information.
Over time, Wang allegedly provided various state secrets, initially in exchange for small payments for "some photographs and documents."
However, as he continued to receive funds, he expanded the scope of his activities and eventually passed the high-level security paperwork.
Investigators reported finding several secret documents on his computer that were obtained by circumventing established security measures, including registration and document tracking protocols.
According to the Chinese media's WeChat reportThe National Security Department found that Wang provided top secret and top secret state secrets to the other party and obtained more than 1 million dollars of spy funds through virtual currency reloading and trading".
China's Criminal Law provides severe penalties for espionage, including imprisonment for 10 years or more or life imprisonment.
The Law on the Preservation of State Secrets requires organizations to establish robust confidentiality agreements.
The People's Court sentenced Wang to life imprisonment for espionage and deprived him of his political rights.
The Department of National Security (DSS) added that Wang's unit failed to enforce adequate confidentiality agreements, leading to the security breach.
The national security authorities have instructed the unit to take corrective measures.
From Fraud to Espionage: How China is Fighting Cryptocurrency-Related Crime
The verdict against Wang is yet another in a series of recent cases of cryptocurrency-related espionage and fraud. China recently extradited Zhang, the mastermind of a $14 billion cryptocurrency pyramid scheme, from Thailand.
Chang's MBI Group has been in business since 2012 and has attracted more than 10 million people by promising high returns through virtual money.
He was first extradited under the 1999 Sino-Thai Extradition Treaty after a lengthy international manhunt involving cooperation under China's Operation Fox Hunt.
In another case, Taiwan convicted eight individuals on espionage charges, revealing that Chinese intelligence agencies had used cryptocurrency to make state secret payments to Taiwanese military personnel. The Taiwan High Court sentenced the individuals to prison terms ranging from 1.5 to 13 years.
The case is one of the largest of its kind and shows that Chinese organizations are using digital assets to support covert operations despite a domestic ban on cryptocurrency trading.
In these incidents, China's national security agencies have called for increased vigilance and urged citizens to report suspicious activities, especially those related to the sale of state secrets.
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