A gang in Fujian, China is using USDT for Money Laundering, with involved funds exceeding 13.3 billion yuan.

On September 5th, in the first half of this year, the People's Court of Hanjing District, Fujian Province, China, ruled on a virtual currency-related criminal case initiated by the court. Individuals Yan, Zheng, and Lin, among others, used the virtual currency USDT (Tether) to establish an underground forex trading network, recruiting clients through overseas chat software, and illegally exchanging RMB and foreign currencies using "U coins" as a medium, with bank account transactions exceeding 13.3 billion yuan. It was verified that the amount of illegal forex trading was 25.62 million yuan. The gang also withdrew cash exceeding 478 million yuan from several banks in Fujian Province, purchased "U coins" to transfer to upstream criminal wallets, and "laundered" cross-border criminal funds, profiting from the price difference. Suspect Lin completely denied the criminal facts after arriving at the case. The court guided the public security authorities to extract three key voice recordings sent from this account from the mobile phones of co-defendants and commissioned a judicial identification institute to conduct voiceprint comparison. The evaluation confirmed that the detected voice was from the same individual as Lin's voice sample, ultimately successfully establishing the evidentiary connection between the involved account and the defendant Lin, solidifying the foundation of the accusation. Lin, who had previously insisted on innocence, pleaded guilty in court. In the face of controversy over the case's classification, the court organized multiple discussions with the public security and judiciary to reach a consensus. Finally, the court sentenced Yan, Zheng, Lin, and 12 others to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 8 months to 3 years for the crime of illegal business operations and assisting in information network crime activities, and imposed fines. ( Putian Network )