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- Chinese authorities confiscate 194,775 Bitcoin, 833,083 Ethereum, 1.4 million LTC, 487 million in XRP of the digital asset from PlusToken.
- Nearly $ 4.2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies will become part of the Chinese National Treasury.
A report from TheBlock reveals new developments related to one of the largest cryptocurrency-related scams in history. A verdict from the Jiangsu Yancheng People’s Court released the exact amount that China managed to confiscate after arresting suspects in the PlusToken scam. The amounts taken by the authorities exceed $ 4.2 billion.
China confiscates 1% of Bitcoin (BTC) supply
In total, the authorities confiscated 194,775 BTC or about 1% of the total supply of Bitcoin, 833,083 ETH, 1.4 million LTC, 27.6 million EOS, 74.167 DASH, 487 million in XRP, 6 billion in DOGE, 79,581 in BCH, 213,724 in USDT. The court stated the following in its verdict, according to TheBlock:
(…) The seized digital currencies will be treated according to law and the proceeds and capital gains will be confiscated from the national treasury.
Local media reports indicate that more than 2.6 million users have been affected by the PlusToken scam. In total, the scammers stole around 50 billion yuan or $ 7.6 billion. The recently concluded trial began on September 22 in a court in Jiangsu Province.
Furthermore, a document filed with the court revealed that the peak period of the scam was between April 6, 2018 and January 2019. At that time, users of the PlusToken wallet had deposited 314,000 BTC, 117,450 BCH, 9 million ETH, among other digital assets.
In total, during the period in question, the 15 people convicted of the scam managed to steal more than 11 billion dollars in various cryptocurrencies, based on the current market price.
The judicial institution rejected a motion of appeal presented by the defendants. Therefore, the verdict issued on November 19 this year is a “final decision”. The 15 inmates will have to serve an 11-year sentence and pay fines ranging from $ 100,000 to $ 1 million.
As reported by CNF, the PlusToken scam started when users of the digital wallet of the same name started reporting problems accessing their funds in 2019. Eventually, the scammers blocked total access to users’ funds and managed to steal more than 200,000 BTC and 800,000 ETH, among other cryptocurrencies.
Some of the perpetrators were initially arrested, but others remained free until July of this year. The Chinese authorities managed to arrest more than 100 suspects associated with the scam. At that time, the “complete destruction” of the PlusToken scam network was reported.
In China, authorities have initiated a series of measures that have impacted the cryptocurrency industry. Executives of major trading platforms such as OKEx and Huobi were arrested for asking for their cooperation in the investigation. As a result, funds and accounts were frozen, which had a negative effect on China’s mining pools. It is assumed that the measures were related to the PlusToken case.
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