Lawyer Analysis - The First Blockchain Game Contract Fraud Case

Introduction

Recently, Beijing Fengtai Police published an article on its official account The article "First case! "Fengtai Economic Investigation Uncovered Blockchain Game Fraud Case", the case combined virtual currency, NFT, blockchain games and many other elements. In reality, these words are at least neutral or even represent the current development of blockchain. Positive vocabulary; but once the technical content of virtual currency, NFT, and chain games is insufficient, it is easy to slip into illegal crimes. This is the case detected by the Beijing Fengtai police.

In addition, I don’t know if the “first case” here is the first case in Fengtai, the first case in Beijing, or even the first case in the country (unlikely), the article There is no explanation, and it cannot be ruled out that it is a means to attract click traffic. However, this does not affect the development of our French article.

Case Introduction

The suspect Liu formed a team and promoted online that a certain blockchain game was developed by their overseas team, luring investors to purchase virtual currencies on "Binxou.com" (Blind Guessing Binance) and exchange them for "H coins" in the game ", then use "H Coin" to purchase NFT in the game, and promote that the NFT digital asset has a value-added effect, and the expected income can reach more than 3 times the original value.

After multiple investors remitted money to the digital account designated by Liu, Liu's team lost contact, and the victim called the police and the crime was committed. At present, the losses of the five victims amount to 6 million yuan.

What is contract fraud?

In the above case, Liu was found guilty of contract fraud by the public security organs. Some friends may be a little unfamiliar with this crime. , but since this crime contains the word "fraud", it is of course closely related to the crime of fraud. Lawyer Liu has introduced in many articles our country’s legal standards for filing fraud crimes, the standards for conviction and sentencing, etc.; for the crime of contract fraud, it can be understood as a crime of fraud in which a contract (or even commercial behavior) is involved.

Specifically speaking, it is the act of defrauding the other party of property during the process of signing and performing a contract "for the purpose of illegal possession". Common patterns are also mentioned in our country’s criminal law, such as:

"With fictitious units or Signing a contract under the false name of another person"

"Using forged, altered, invalidated bills or other false property rights certificates as security ”

“Without the actual ability to perform, the party will first perform a small contract or partially perform the contract to trick the other party into continuing to sign the contract. "Performing the contract"

"Accepting the goods, payment, prepaid card or guaranteed property from the other party and then escaping"

According to the case disclosed by Beijing Fengtai police, in the case of Liu and others, "When multiple investors asked Liu After remitting money to the designated digital account, Liu's team lost contact, and the police characterized this behavior as a crime of contract fraud. However, according to Lawyer Liu’s experience, this situation may also be considered a crime of fraud by some judicial authorities.

Compared with the crime of fraud, the crime of contract fraud is more beneficial to the criminal suspect. Although the crime of fraud and contract fraud both have three sentencing ranges: if the amount is relatively large, the sentence is not more than 3 years in prison; if the amount is huge, the sentence is not less than 3 years but not more than 10 years; imprisonment. However, the filing and sentencing standards for these two crimes are very different:

The filing standard for the crime of fraud is 3,000 to 10,000 yuan (6,000 yuan in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other regions), while the filing standard for the crime of contract fraud is 20,000 yuan;

The standard for the crime of fraud is 30,000 to 100,000 yuan (the standard in Shanghai is 100,000 yuan); the crime of contract fraud is 200,000 yuan;

The standard for extremely large amounts is 500,000 yuan for fraud; 1 million yuan for contract fraud.

This comparison will make it clearer: when the only choices are the crime of fraud and the crime of contract fraud, if you want to If it is beneficial to the criminal suspect, of course, the crime of contract fraud must be chosen.

Conclusion

Nearly Over the past year, a large number of victims of blockchain, virtual currency, NFT and other projects have contacted Lawyer Liu, hoping to help them recover losses from investment, fraud, theft, etc. But many times Lawyer Liu also feels very powerless. In our country, the judicial organs such as the public prosecutors and the law are the most powerful in recovering stolen goods and redressing losses. However, due to various reasons in reality (some can be said, some cannot be said), many victims are indeed It is difficult to recover the losses. After the client has entrusted a lawyer, the lawyer will also help the client seek intervention or help from judicial authorities, such as filing a lawsuit in court or reporting the case to the public security agency. However, due to the novelty of current blockchain, virtual currency and other projects, it is difficult for many judicial authorities to judge how to control the law enforcement at the first time. Once the judicial authorities hesitate, everyone in the currency circle must know that the circulation speed of virtual currency must be It is much faster than electronic fraud, and it will be more difficult to trace the source later.

Blockchain, virtual currency and other emerging technologies and financial fields are slow to be understood and familiarized by the public. People with ulterior motives will use this as a way to defraud. Tools or excuses, either by catering to the desires of ordinary people or by taking advantage of ordinary people's ignorance. For the general public, the fundamental way to prevent being deceived is not to seek returns beyond your capabilities, and to invest cautiously in areas you do not understand.