A Chinese government official was sentenced to life in prison Aug. 22, due to his involvement in illegitimate business operations associated with a 2.4 billion Chinese yuan Bitcoin mining venture, alongside unrelated corruption. The government official was found guilty of bribery and engaging in unlawful business operations in connection with the administration of a Bitcoin mining operation that was valued 329 million dollars in U.S. currency, according to a report from Cointelegraph.
The judgement against Xiao Yi, a former member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group and vice chairman, was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou City, Cointelegraph reported.
His conviction is related to bribes given to him between the years of 2008 and 2021, while the allegations of abusing his authority occurred between the years of 2017 and 2021. During this time period, the company Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, which had its headquarters in Fuzhou and managed a vast fleet of more than 160,000 Bitcoin mining machines, is said to have received financial and electricity assistance, the Cointelegraph report said.
The prosecution contends Yi issued orders to a variety of departments inside the mining operation to fabricate statistics and reclassify the amount of electricity consumed in order to hide the enterprise's true extent. During the 2017-20 time period, the operations of Jiumu were responsible for roughly 10% of the entire electricity usage in Fuzhou, Cointelegraph reported.
According to the verdict handed down by the People's Court in Hangzhou, Yi admitted his guilt and expressed regret by giving back the money that had been taken and having the benefits gained by bribery confiscated, according to the Cointelegraph report.
Even if possession of cryptocurrencies is not yet prohibited in China, it is nevertheless against the law to acquire, sell or trade cryptocurrencies at this time, Cointelegraph reported.
On Aug. 3, a Chinese court declared that, due to China's rules on Bitcoin, a Bitcoin lending contract for $10 million could not be legally recovered, so the court canceled the contract and returned the money to the parties involved. A Chinese national was sentenced to nine months in prison Aug. 14 for assisting a friend earn a $20 profit by purchasing Tether. The crime was discovered Aug. 14 and the sentence was handed down, the Cointelegraph report said.
