A network engineer has been accused of stealing funds from a gambling website, with authorities in two locations seizing 183 bitcoins

BlockBeats News, January 20, Shenzhen IT guy Li Dong (pseudonym) was targeted by the police in two provinces, Hunan and Henan. A large amount of Bitcoin was found in his cryptocurrency wallet. The public security organs in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan, and Changge City, Henan, have both filed criminal cases against Li Dong, with the suspected crime being "running a casino." The Zhangjiajie police seized more than a hundred Bitcoins from Li Dong's account, converted to over 40 million RMB; the Henan police seized 80 of his Bitcoins, with a market value of over 40 million RMB. Later, Li Dong was not convicted of "running a casino." Instead, he was prosecuted by the Changge City Procuratorate in Henan on charges of theft and infringing on citizens' personal information. In January 2026, the case was publicly heard in the Changge City Court. After the adjournment, the court stated that a new trial date would be scheduled.

"Post-80s" Li Dong is a network security engineer who majored in Information Security in college. He has worked in network security technology at several well-known Internet companies and later settled in Shenzhen, where he founded an Internet company in recent years. According to his family, starting around 2016, Li Dong began trading stocks and cryptocurrencies, acquiring some Bitcoin. However, the police investigation later revealed that his source of Bitcoin was from another "channel." In September 2024, the Zhangjiajie City Public Security Bureau in Hunan summoned Li Dong on suspicion of "running a casino." It turned out that in May of that year, based on an "anonymous tip," the Zhangjiajie police initiated a case to investigate online gambling, with Li Dong being listed as a suspect. The Zhangjiajie police seized 103 Bitcoins from Li Dong's digital wallet, converting them to over 49.61 million RMB. Soon, Li Dong was released on bail. However, in the seizure decision and the bail document, the crime Li Dong was suspected of changed from "running a casino" to "illegally obtaining computer information system data."

In July 2025, the Changge City Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Li Dong on charges of theft and infringing on citizens' personal information. On January 5, 2026, the case was publicly heard in the Changge City Court. According to the prosecution, in 2020, Li Dong exploited a loophole in the server program of the overseas online gambling website "OpenCloud Sports" to technically steal the personal information of over 1.84 million Chinese citizens registered on the gambling website, including people from Xuchang and Changge. In addition to the accusation of infringing on citizens' personal information, the prosecution also believed that Li Dong stole funds from the gambling website, constituting theft. A total of over 35.5 million RMB was embezzled from the affiliate commission of the "OpenCloud Sports" gambling website. According to attendees of the trial, Li Dong's defense lawyer pleaded not guilty on his behalf. The prosecution, on the other hand, stated that the facts of Li Dong's theft and infringement of citizens' personal information were clear, the evidence was true and sufficient, and he should be punished for multiple crimes in accordance with the law and held criminally responsible. (The Paper News)