A court in China jails man for 10 years after stealing 384 ETH

A Chinese court has jailed a man for ten years for stealing 384 ETH. The hacker siphoned crypto from the victim’s wallet in 2 months in 2018. This is one of the rarest instances of the Chinese government arresting crypto hackers.

The defendant stole Ethereum from victim’s wallet gradually

A Chinese court-related document noted that between March and April 2018, Li Moumou hacked a crypto user’s wallet and stole 383.6722 Ethereum assets. The document noted that the defendant deployed technologies like “Trojan Horse” to collect some ETH from Miao Moumou’s wallet. 

Reports indicate that the defendant used trojan horses while maintaining servers for the Miao Moumous database. In the process, the criminal transferred around 383.6722 ETH. According to reports, the victim stored his Ether in a mobile application of the imToken App. The defendant did not steal the funds at once but did so gradually more than 520 times. 

After completing his sinful act, the defendant transferred the ETH into Tether, receiving 109,458 USDT in another electronic wallet. The victim noted that whenever he received funds or profits in his wallet, a third party “immediately transferred by the other party within a few seconds. This situation lasted for a long time. Two months.”

It appears that the victim could scan and view the assets as they moved from his wallet to the defendant. According to Chinese reports, the victim showed the relevant page that displays info about Ether transferred and the value at the time.

Convicted to 10 years in prison

The defendant has recently suffered the consequences of the law. According to reports, the Chinese Guangxin District Court of Shangrao City provide its judgment on the case. The court sentenced Li Moumou to 10 years and 6 months in prison, with a fine of RMB 200,000.

The investigations indicate that the value of the 384 ETH stolen was just about 430,000 RMB. On the arrest of Li Moumou, the police returned 109,458 USDT to the victim Moumou. Of course, this is a rare case of a crypto hacker being arrested in China. However, Chinese courts have dealt with several crypto-related cases in the past. 

In June 2021, the Chinese court convicted three men of stealing around $927,553 (6 million yuan) worth of digital assets. According to reports, the three men stole over $407,903 (2.64 million yuan) worth of Bitcoin and $516,029 (3.34 million yuan) worth of Ethereum coins from a woman called Luo. The three men, Liang, Wang, and Yuan, were sentenced to 10 years, 8.5 years, and 7.5 years in jail, respectively.  In another case, a man was arrested and sentenced to 3.5 years, mainly for stealing train power and using it to mine Bitcoin.

Security in the digital landscape

The crypto landscape has suffered from many cases of insecurity in the recent past. According to a Chinese news outlet, the security of networks, even crypto platforms, is directly related to social stability and national security. How governments react when insecurity hits the crypto landscape can affect the speed of adoption of cryptocurrencies. Investor protection by crypto networks in collaboration with authorities could catalyze cryptocurrency adoption.