Central Commission for Discipline Inspection discusses Yao Qian's use of cryptocurrency for power-money transactions again, emphasizing the importance of technology supervision in the financial sector

BlockBeats News, February 17, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission recently published the headline article "Preventing and Controlling the Integrity Risks in Financial Information System Construction." The article pointed out:

In recent years, the importance of regulatory technology in the financial sector has become increasingly prominent. The high professional and technical barriers have brought about difficulties in "management, supervision, and accountability," making the integrity risks in financial information system construction increasingly prominent. While sternly investigating the corruption issues of Yao Qian, former director of the Science and Technology Regulatory Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and former director of the Information Center, the discipline inspection and supervision team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at the China Securities Regulatory Commission carried out systematic rectification efforts, continuously strengthened a strict atmosphere, and focused on preventing integrity risks.

"The use of virtual currency for power-for-money transactions is one of the typical characteristics of the Yao Qian case and is also a new situation not encountered in previous cases," a relevant official from the discipline inspection and supervision team at the China Securities Regulatory Commission told reporters. Unlike physical assets such as cash and gold, virtual currency is generated through cryptographic principles, appearing only as a string of alphanumeric characters on the network. It is isolated from the current commercial bank and payment institution account system, completely bypasses national foreign exchange controls, can be freely exchanged across borders, has extremely high concealment, and is challenging to discover, collect evidence for, and solidify evidence.

Combining Yao Qian's work experience and authority characteristics, the discipline inspection and supervision team at the China Securities Regulatory Commission meticulously carried out ideological and political work on Yao Qian. After inducing him to confess to using his authority to assist others in seeking gains and accepting virtual currency as part of disciplinary violations, they promptly obtained important physical evidence such as virtual currency hardware wallets. They strictly followed the relevant requirements for electronic evidence collection, extracted his virtual currency transaction records, etc., conducted price evaluations, and facilitated a breakthrough in the case.

"Yao Qian used his official position to accept huge bribes from multiple companies, provided assistance to others in information system procurement, and was involved in project contracting, project promotion, fund disbursement, project acceptance, and other matters. The further development of the case has further confirmed the high professional and technical barriers in the information system construction field that we have been concerned with in our daily oversight, highlighting the large integrity risks in procurement and other aspects," explained a relevant official from the discipline inspection and supervision team at the China Securities Regulatory Commission. In response to the issues revealed by the case, the discipline inspection and supervision team submitted supervisory opinions to the Party Committee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, urging a high level of vigilance against integrity risks in information system procurement and strengthening relevant institutional development and enforcement.

"We must not only promote governance at the source but also strengthen the education, management, and supervision of professional technical cadres, especially the 'top leaders,'" stated a relevant official from the discipline inspection and supervision team at the China Securities Regulatory Commission. They will urge the China Securities Regulatory Commission to, based on establishing a long-term mechanism, address the misconceptions held by some professional technical cadres that they have no power and that integrity risks are low by enhancing Party education, discipline education, warning education, and strengthening cadre's political consciousness and disciplinary awareness.

In November of last year, according to Pengu New Vision citing news from the discipline inspection and supervision team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission stationed at the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Supervisory Commission of Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, the serious disciplinary and legal issues of Yao Qian, former director of the Science and Technology Regulatory Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and former director of the Information Center, were subjected to disciplinary review and supervisory investigation.