In the United States, two Chinese intelligence agents are charged with obstruction of justice. To obtain documents related to the prosecution of a China-based company, they attempted to bribe a US government employee with Bitcoin (BTC). Nevertheless, the latter turned out to be a double agent in the service of the FBI.
A corruption case linked to the king of cryptocurrencies
Recently, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report summarizing the facts.
Since 2019, two officers Chinese intelligence tried to bribe a US government employeeFBI double agent nicknamed GE-1, on behalf of a company alias “Company-1”.
This company being prosecuted legally in the United States, the role of the two Chinese agents was to steal confidential information in order to confuse its legal proceedings.
The situation rapidly accelerated in September 2021 : Chinese agents asked the double agent to report on meetings he was scheduled to attend with prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York. It is this district that deals with the proceedings against Company-1.
The following month, GE-1 sent Chinese agents a supposedly secret document related to the Company-1 prosecution. In exchange, he was paid with $41,000, then another $20,000 in October 2022, all in the form of bitcoins.
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A multinational telecommunications involved in the case?
Without revealing all the details of the case, DOJ says Company-1 is a China-based global communications company.
For their part, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, the two Chinese intelligence agents, are accused of wanting to slow down the legal proceedings against Company-1. Additionally, for using the Bitcoin network, Guochun He is charged with money laundering.
If found guilty, Guochun He faces up to 60 years in prison. For his part, Zheng Wang faces 20 years in prison. At present, the two men are still at large.
This affair only heightens the tensions between the East and the West. In recent years, the United States has increased its efforts to jam Chinese espionage: the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei regularly undergoes legal changes in the country against it.
In a context where the value of Bitcoin has fallen by more than 70% in one year, this case could further reinforce the bad press of cryptocurrencies among the general public.
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Sources: United States Department of Justice
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Always enthusiastic about new technologies, I gradually moved closer to Web3-related activities during the year 2021. Over time, I wanted to add my stone to the building. It was then that I became an editor, with the aim of explaining cryptocurrency-related topics to as many people as possible.
Timothy Bourbotte
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