Chinese Wuhan $66,000 Cryptocurrency Theft Case Retrial: The stolen amount is determined based on the actual payment cost to the victim, and the main culprit is sentenced to ten years and six months

BlockBeats News, June 6th. According to the Procuratorial Daily, Lin, Zeng, and Dai conspired to use cryptocurrency transactions as a cover, secretly filmed the victim's digital wallet private key during the transaction, and after the cryptocurrency was received, secretly logged into the victim's wallet to revoke the transaction, transferring the related cryptocurrency back to their controlled account. The three individuals committed the crime three times, causing the victim a total economic loss of 660,000 RMB.

The first-instance court held that in the absence of clear judicial interpretations regarding the valuation method of cryptocurrency and the sentencing standards, it was not appropriate to directly base the particularly large amount of the case on the victim's purchase amount of 660,000 RMB. Therefore, the court sentenced the three individuals to eight years to five years and six months of imprisonment for "other serious circumstances" and imposed fines.

Subsequently, the Han Yang District Procuratorate of Wuhan City, Hubei Province filed an appeal, which was supported by the Wuhan Municipal Procuratorate. The prosecution believed that the first-instance court misapplied the law and the sentencing was too lenient. Prosecutor Dai Wentao of the Wuhan Municipal Procuratorate stated that in a situation where the victim had a clear loss amount to refer to but it was considered impossible to determine the value of the cryptocurrency, there was a logical contradiction and a misapplication of the law. In judicial practice, it is already a mainstream approach to determine the amount of theft by using the price of the stolen goods or the transaction price. Therefore, determining the value of cryptocurrency based on the actual cost paid by the victim has factual, legal, and practical basis.

In the second instance, the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court adopted the prosecution's opinion, revoked the original judgment accordingly, and instead determined that the amount of theft was particularly large. Lin, the main offender, was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison for theft, while accomplices Zeng and Dai were sentenced to eight years in prison, each with a fine.