According to ChainCatcher, the People’s Court Newspaper published an article titled “Criminal Identification of Virtual Currency Settlement and Payment Assistance Behavior.”
The article points out that virtual currency settlement and payment assistance is the use of virtual currency to help others transfer property for telecommunications fraud. In the identification of virtual currency settlement and payment crimes, we should grasp the characteristics of the proceeds of crime, the dividing line between upstream telecommunications fraud and subsequent concealment and concealment of criminal proceeds and their proceeds, and the impact of the subjective knowledge and "collusion" of the helper on the identification of the crime, so as to distinguish crimes that are easily confused.
First, determine whether the object transferred with virtual currency has the three characteristics of criminal proceeds, namely, property, criminal illegality, and certainty. Secondly, take the completion of the crime of fraud as the dividing point to define whether the virtual currency settlement and payment behavior is an act of disguising and concealing the proceeds of crime and its benefits, or an act of assisting upstream telecommunications fraud. Finally, it should be determined whether the helper has conspired with others in advance, whether he only realized that others were illegally using information networks to carry out criminal activities or knew that others were committing fraud, to determine whether the virtual currency settlement and payment behavior constitutes an accomplice to the crime of telecommunications fraud.
In summary, there are three situations in which virtual currency settlement payment assistance can be identified as a crime:
The first is that the helper did not conspire with others before the fraud was completed. After the fraud was completed and the fraudster obtained property, illegality and certainty of property, the helper intentionally provided virtual currency settlement and payment assistance, which constitutes the crime of concealing and hiding the proceeds of crime.
Second, although the helper objectively concealed and hid the proceeds of the crime, he formed a communication of intent with others regarding fraud at the end of the fraud, and his behavior should be identified as an accomplice to the crime of fraud; if the helper reached a communication of intent with others to carry out cybercrime at the end of the fraud, his behavior constitutes the crime of assisting in information network criminal activities.
The third is that the crime of fraud has not been completed or the property does not have the three characteristics of proceeds of crime, but the helper knows that others are committing fraud and provides virtual currency settlement and payment services, he should be identified as an accomplice to the crime of fraud; the helper knows that others are committing cybercrime activities but does not know how to commit the specific crimes, and he should be held criminally responsible for the crime of assisting information network criminal activities.