The Horqin branch of the Public Security Bureau of Tongliao City has just released information to a Netease reporter that their 3-month long stint of investigating a money laundering gang is finally over.
63 suspects linked to the case has been arrested including gang leaders. The gang may have possibly laundered up to 12 billion Yuan throughout their operation period.
Police learned this in July 2022 through an early warning from the Public Security Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region about abnormal capital flow for a bank card under Shi Mouyuan’s Construction – which amounted to over 10 million Yuan. Further investigations revealed that gang operations were across several provinces and cities.
Throughout September and October, 230 police officers were sent out across 17 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to shut down the gang’s net, and successfully arrested one of their leaders Zhang Mou, who has fled to Bangkok, Thailand.
Uyghurs personnel who were part of this ring were reportedly advised to return to their home country. An illegal sum of 130 million Yuan was confirmed to have been confiscated.
The gang’s operation started in May 2021, when they first made illicit funds through fraud, pyramid schemes, gambling, and other illegal activities. After recruiting overseas personnel, their crypto assets were used to launder this illicit wealth, reconverted to RMB to fund upstream criminal activities.
It must be noted that this isn’t the first time this year a cryptocurrency related case this large has appeared in China: Hengyang County Public Security Bureau has arrested 93 suspects of a gang laundering 400 million Yuan just 3 months ago.
That been said, Chainalysis also reported that illicit activity involving cryptocurrencies has dropped by 15%, while overall scam revenue is 65% lower in July 2022, as compared to July last year. Only time will tell if these cases will contribute to an increase in the end-year report.
