Zhao Dong, a tycoon in the Chinese currency circle and founder of the Renrenbit crypto financial platform, was charged with illegal business operations and was eventually sentenced to seven years in prison. The original sentencing was not so severe, but he got into trouble because of the involvement of his pig teammates.
赵东赚了3.5万元，赵某鹏和周某凯分别获利5000元。赵某鹏和周某凯是赵东团队的成员。在检察院移送审查起诉阶段，对这两人的量刑建议是一年半。周某凯自愿认罪认罚，而赵某鹏坚持不认罪，同时还有一位名为余某的OTC成员，同样坚称无罪，也被建议一年半的刑期。
According to the report, Zhao and others knew nothing about You’s illegal payment and settlement business and the suspected crime of the funds involved. During the review and court proceedings, Zhao Moupeng insisted on not pleading guilty. Perhaps he thought that even if he did not plead guilty, the sentence recommended by the prosecutor's office was only one and a half years, so he might as well give it a try. Even if the verdict is passed, it won't take too long, but the gears of fate have unexpectedly reversed.
Refusing to plead guilty reveals more secrets
The Xihu District People's Court held three public hearings on the case. During the court hearing on May 12, 2021, in order to find out the subjective knowledge of each criminal suspect, prosecutorial technicians from the Xihu District Procuratorate further recovered and extracted the mobile phone data of the persons involved in the case transferred by the public security organs. When analyzing the chat records between You and Zhao Dong's gang, Zhou Kai and others, it was found that the fact that Zhao Dong and others knew that You was engaged in illegal payment and settlement activities was confirmed.
It is worth noting that when the Xihu District Procuratorate reviewed the extracted mobile phone chat records, it found that Zhao’s gang also had evidence of using virtual currency to provide foreign exchange services, and was suspected of illegally buying and selling foreign exchange.
On February 11, 2022, the Xihu District Procuratorate filed a public indictment with the court on the crime of illegal business operations against Xiao, You, Zhao and others, and added the crime of illegal foreign exchange trading by Zhao, Zhao Moupeng and Zhou Mokai. fact.
This means that the procuratorate initially only wanted to prove that Zhao Dong and others were aware of the illegality of the upstream funds through the chat records of the people involved. However, in the process of checking the chat records, the foreign exchange trading activities of Zhao Dong's gang were discovered. In other words, if Zhao Moupeng had not insisted on a plea of not guilty, but voluntarily pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, the prosecutors might not have dug deeply into the chat records of the people involved in the case.
The case was held in three public hearings by the Xihu District People's Court on March 24, 2022. Zhao Dong was sentenced to seven years in prison for illegal business, and Zhao Moupeng was sentenced to four years in prison. Compared with the previous sentencing recommendations for guilty plea and punishment, Zhao Dong and Zhao Moupeng obviously cannot accept this sentence. Seeing that he was about to be released from prison, he suddenly encountered such a harsh sentence, so he appealed. However, on September 5 of the same year, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original verdict.