Reports from local media indicate that on August 22, the Intermediate People’s Court in Hangzhou City handed down a life imprisonment ruling to Xiao Yi, a former member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group and Vice Chairman, on charges of corruption and abuse of authority.
The former Chinese government official received a life sentence for engaging in unauthorized business activities involving a 2.4 billion Chinese yuan ($329 million) Bitcoin mining venture and separate allegations of corruption.
The corruption charges arise from non-cryptocurrency-related acts of bribery spanning from 2008 to 2021. The abuse of power charges, spanning from 2017 to 2021, is connected to the provision of financial and electricity subsidies to Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, a company based in Fuzhou City that managed over 160,000 Bitcoin mining machines at one point.
According to prosecutors, Yi directed relevant departments to manipulate statistical reports and alter electricity consumption classifications to conceal the mining operation. Between 2017 and 2020, Jiumu’s electricity usage constituted 10% of Fuzhou’s total electricity consumption. The ruling magistrate of the Hangzhou People’s Court stated, “Yi pleaded guilty and repented, actively returned the stolen funds, and all the bribes and their profits have been seized.”
Presently, China has prohibited all forms of cryptocurrency transactions, exchange activities, and fiat-to-crypto onboarding but has not gone so far as to outlaw cryptocurrency ownership outright. In a decision on August 3, a Chinese court ruled a $10 million Bitcoin lending contract unenforceable under the nation’s Bitcoin prohibition, without any avenue for legal debt retrieval. Additionally, on August 14, a Chinese citizen was given a nine-month prison sentence for aiding an acquaintance in purchasing Tether and earning a $20 profit from the transaction.
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