Breaking News from China! Judge Publicly Accused: 5 Errors in USDT Trading Judgment "Endangers National Financial Security"

A Weibo user, under the handle "Accusing Xiamen Siming of Shielding U-Coin," has submitted a formal complaint to the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, alleging that Judge Xu Xiaolin from the Xiamen Siming District Court made five errors in a USDT (Tether) trading case. According to the complaint, these errors blatantly contravene guiding cases and jeopardize national financial security.

The Supreme People's Court of China responded by forwarding the complaint materials to the High Court of Fujian Province.

On April 12th, the Supreme People's Court replied to the complainant, stating: "We have forwarded your petition matters to the Fujian Provincial Higher People's Court."

Source: WeiBo

Source: NetEase

According to the complaint by the Weibo user "Accusing Xiamen Siming of Shielding U-Coin," the Siming District Procuratorate in Xiamen accused defendant Jiang Mouqiu and others of conspiring in February 2022. They allegedly planned to deceive sellers in USDT transactions, pretending not to have received the USDT after receiving the coins, and either refusing to pay cash or robbing the sellers of their cash after successful transactions.

After the case was brought to the Siming Court, Judge Xu Xiaolin presided over it. Upon review, she recognized that although virtual currencies are represented as computer data, they differ from ordinary computer data in their generation principles, scarcity, and value, and are more akin to real property on a value basis. Despite strong regulatory policies on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Tether by the state, they are not deemed illegal but are treated as virtual goods. Hence, in the sale and purchase of virtual currency, the economic losses of the deceived victims should be compensated by the defendants.

On January 5, 2024, Xu Xiaolin issued a first-instance judgment, sentencing the involved parties, including Jiang Mouqiu, to fixed-term imprisonments ranging from 16 years and 6 months to 4 years and 6 months for fraud and robbery; and ordering the defendants Jiang Mouqiu and others to collectively reimburse the victims Li Mouquan 600,000 RMB, Zhang Mouzhi 220,000 RMB, Liu Moucheng 80,000 RMB, and Yao Moubin 320,000 RMB.

The 123,800 RMB detained in the case from Jiang Mouqiu and the 20,000 RMB returned by He Mouchen were used for reimbursement, with the shortfall to be further compensated. Of the 1.14 million RMB of illicit money detained in the case, 475,000 RMB was returned to the victim Lin Mouyang, with the remaining funds confiscated and remitted to the state treasury.

Regarding Xu Xiaolin's first-instance judgment, the complainant believes there are at least five errors:

1. Contradiction of the Supreme Court’s guiding cases.
2. Endangerment of national financial security and national security.
3. The involved USDT was not appraised, with unknown origin and authenticity.
4. The pricing of USDT contradicts the directives of the central ministries.
5. The judgment’s decision to compensate with virtual currency allegedly protects cross-border money laundering crimes.

The complainant expects that the supervisory departments such as the Discipline Inspection Commission and the Political and Legal Affairs Commission will investigate Xu Xiaolin for alleged wrongful adjudication, to safeguard financial order and national security. Additionally, as the case has been appealed to the Xiamen Intermediate People's Court, the complainant hopes that relevant departments and leaders will urge the correction of errors in the first-instance judgment to uphold the unity of national laws.

The case awaits a second-instance judgment, with the market closely watching if there will be a change in the decision.