The Shanghai court in China has concluded a digital collectible fraud case, and the main culprit has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
BlockBeats News, August 17th. According to the official WeChat account of the First Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai (Shanghai No. 1 Court), the court recently concluded a second-instance criminal case involving digital collectibles. The defendants Wang and Liu, under the guise of operating a digital collectibles platform, issued digital collectibles whose underlying electronic images were generated by AI, falsely promoting the appreciation prospects of the aforementioned digital collectibles and promising a "50% off" guaranteed return of principal. The court ruled that Wang and Liu were guilty of fund-raising fraud and sentenced them to eight years and six months, and seven years and two months of imprisonment, respectively.
In October to December 2023, Wang and Liu registered a technology company in Shanghai, focusing on a digital collectibles platform. During this period, Wang and Liu used the platform and WeChat groups to publicly promote the sale of digital collectibles to the general public. They released a total of 7,888 to 16,888 copies of the digital collectibles at prices ranging from 9.9 yuan to 69.9 yuan. By controlling the trading volume and price of secondary market collectibles through self-buying and selling, they created the illusion of active trading. When victims were unable to trade the collectibles and requested refunds, they would block the victims.
After trial, the Shanghai No. 1 Court held that the technology company involved in the case operated a digital collectibles platform without obtaining the necessary administrative license. The digital collectibles in question lacked support from cultural and artistic creation activities, and the selling prices deviated significantly from their value, violating market rules. The "on-chain services" provided by the platform also lacked significant value. Wang and Liu's actions were not essentially selling goods but deceiving victims of their investment under the guise of operating a digital collectibles platform, exhibiting characteristics of illegality, publicity, inducement, and social impact, and should be deemed as illegal fund-raising. In addition, Wang and Liu, with the aim of illegal possession, unlawfully raised funds using fraudulent means, with a substantial amount involved, constituting the crime of fund-raising fraud.
You may also like

10 Counterintuitive Insights on Latin American Payments

Perp DEX: The Next Generation Exchange "War"

The AI gamble of mining companies: Valuations enter a phase of differentiation, and it's hard to turn the tide

A letter from Alliance to entrepreneurs: Written on the occasion of Cursor selling for 60 billion dollars

Stablecoins Finally Find Real Returns: On-Chain Reinsurance Re Explained | Interview with Re Founder Karan Saroya

The impossible triangle is simply a pseudo problem

Will MicroStrategy fall into a death spiral? What will the macro trend be in the second half of the year?

Blockchain Capital Partner: The Core Secret of Arbitrage

STRC unanchored by 11%, can the perpetual motion machine of Strategy still operate?

Bitcoin Market Analysis 2026: Can BTC Reach $150K by Year-End?

Bitcoin ETF Outflows Hit a Record $4.4 Billion: What Are Traders Doing With Their Cash?

WEEX App Just Got Smarter – New Tabs for Faster Trades & Easy Asset Management

WEEX All-New Search Features: Find, Trade & Earn Faster Than Ever

Morning Report | Illinois signs the strictest digital asset tax law in the U.S.; RWA tokenization market size surpasses $43 billion, institutions accelerate the migration of on-chain assets

Full version of the debut Q&A! Federal Reserve Chairman Waller: Sticking to the 2% inflation target, establishing five special working groups, individual did not submit the dot plot

From Disruptor to Shadow Market: The Crypto Market is Becoming a Colony of Traditional Finance

Dalio's important long article: How to position in the current market environment?






