Chinese Official Receives Life Sentence for Espionage After Crypto Trading Losses Lead to Selling State Secrets

Chinese official Wang Moumou has received a life sentence for selling classified documents to British intelligence. He got into deep debt from bad cryptocurrency trading and accepted crypto as payment for his espionage activities.

According to a report from Anping Province’s Ministry of National Security, Wang was convicted of espionage and selling sensitive documents to foreign intelligence agencies. His troubles began with significant losses in crypto investments. This led him to take cryptocurrency in exchange for his services.

The report states, “The National Security Agency found that Wang provided top-secret and confidential state secrets to the other party and obtained more than 1 million yuan in spy funds through virtual currency recharge and trading.” Ultimately, the People’s Court sentenced Wang to life in prison for his crimes.

Interestingly, the conviction did not specify which foreign government recruited him. However, earlier reports from June mentioned that MI6, the British intelligence agency, had recruited someone named Wang Moumou. This strongly suggests they are the same person.

Wang's involvement in cryptocurrency crime isn’t unique. For instance, a notorious North Korean hacking group has used crypto to fund its espionage operations. Additionally, three years ago, a U.S. nuclear engineer tried to sell secrets for crypto, only to find out that his “foreign handler” was actually an FBI agent.

The Anping Ministry criticized Wang’s character and negligence. They briefly touched on his ongoing interest in cryptocurrency. Still, there’s hope in the global community that China might lift its Bitcoin ban. Notably, state media had a chance to criticize crypto but chose not to.

In the past year, China has shown some positive signs regarding cryptocurrency. At the recent BRICS Summit, the country played a key role in creating a new international payments platform based on blockchain technology. They are also working to integrate their central bank digital currency, the digital yuan, into more local payment systems.

This espionage case may hint at China’s stance on cryptocurrency. It doesn’t reflect well on the crypto community that Wang’s failed trades led him to treason. However, the state’s focus was on his individual actions, not on criticizing the broader implications of cryptocurrency.