The Prosecutor's Office of the Yuecheng District of Shaoxing City (Zhejiang Province) investigated the case of the use of digital yuan (e-CNY) accounts for cashing and money laundering. This is reported by local media.
A group of four people found merchants accepting CBDC and negotiated with them to exchange a certain amount in digital currency for cash. Merchants received a commission of 1-1.5%.
One of the arrested, named Yuan, explained that he had discovered an offer about the possibility of earning money from such operations on the Internet. He received 0.8% of the turnover.
To scale up the activity, Yuan attracted his girlfriend and friend to it. He paid them 0.5%. Details about the fourth person involved in the case are not reported.
In just four days in September 2023, the group cashed out over 200,000 e-CNY (~$25,255).
According to Yuan, he did not think about the origin of the money. According to the report, transactions in digital yuan are strictly confidential and foreign criminal groups use this function to launder money.
To conceal their activities, as well as due to the small number of merchants working with digital yuan, the group traveled to neighboring cities to search for them. For law enforcement, the alarm was triggered by abnormal e-CNY flows through the accounts of some merchants in Shaoxing, after which they quickly reached out to Yuan and his accomplices.
The court sentenced the defendants to prison terms ranging from 16-19 months and fines for laundering proceeds of crime.
Recall that in May, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the People's Bank of China announced the expansion of the e-CNY program in the autonomous region.