My bank card has been frozen, do I have to return the stolen goods?

Source: Mankiw Blockchain Law

Professional answers from Lawyer Madelin

First of all , regarding the final ownership of the stolen money, there is a certain order, which is the kind-hearted you, the victim who was cheated, and the society and the country that hid the truth.

When a bank card is frozen due to receipt of stolen money, generally only the cardholder who has a legitimate reason for collecting the money will not be implicated in the refund. The legal interpretation is: the money you collect must be obtained in good faith. The popular understanding is: although the money the other party calls is not serious money, you don’t know it when you collect the money. It has a legal basis, such as normal trade collection and settlement, legal debt collection, and financial compensation after being laid off. Gold and so on are his arsenic and my rice bowl. Letting you, who is kind and ignorant, pay the bill at this time will cause unbearable weight in life and unfair consequences.

Therefore, if there is a legitimate reason, there is no need to refund the stolen money even if it is received. Then, if there is no legitimate reason, the money must be refunded, and the case handling agency will refund the victim. If there is no victim, such as suspected pornography, gambling, drug abuse, etc. and the stolen money should be confiscated, it will be directly confiscated to the national treasury. In short, you have to admit when you make a mistake. Wouldn’t it be nice if you don’t get deceived next time? If you lose money, you will gain wisdom and your financial intelligence will be improved!

Secondly, let’s not talk about USDT first. Under normal circumstances, the bank card is frozen. You are kind. What conditions need to be met to avoid a refund?

After the bank card is frozen due to stolen goods, the pressure is now on the payee. In order to be able to unfreeze the money without a refund, the payee must prove his/her innocence and that it was obtained in good faith. For the determination that it was obtained in good faith, the payee needs to at the same time meet the following conditions:

1. He did not know and should not have known that the money was stolen when receiving the money, even if he later knew that he had received the stolen money. , are not included;

2. The money collected by the payee is not only legal, but the consideration for the payment is also reasonable, and it is not obtained for free or at a low price, that is, the money collected does not constitute free prostitution or free prostitution. Situations of taking advantage;

For example, let’s take a specific situation of obtaining goodwill: the company asks you to host the annual meeting, and lets you pay for the expenses first. After it is completed, the company will reimburse you based on the invoice and withdrawal application you submitted, and pay the corresponding amount to your salary card. After receiving the payment, you happily ate hot pot and sang songs. You were recalling that "the solution to the key problem is to find the key to the problem" when you were suddenly called by the police uncle for questioning! The case-handling agency informed you that the money sent to you by the company involved stolen money, and your card has been frozen, and asked you to withdraw it immediately and unfreeze it, otherwise you will not be able to pay for the hot pot next time. At this time, if you are aggrieved, you have to stand up and provide the emails or chat records in which the company entrusted you with services, the sales contracts for the goods and services you purchased for the annual meeting, payment and communication records, bank statements, and various other things you declared according to the company's accounting process. Approval documents, etc., must be presented in detail to prove that the advance payment you received from the company is deserved, that is, it was obtained in good faith, so there is no need to refund the stolen money. Similar to the bona fide acquisition of so-called stolen money, there are also legal salary income, legal transaction investment income, etc.

Of course, if you cannot prove that the payment is justified, then you have no choice but to refund the money. Go directly to the legal provisions. For example, according to Article 7(2) of the "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Telecommunications and Internet Fraud and Other Criminal Cases" jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security, "the bank account involved in the case or The money in the third-party payment account involved in the case should be returned promptly to the legal property of the victims with clear ownership. It is indeed impossible to verify all the victims due to objective reasons, but there is evidence that the account was used for telecommunications network fraud crimes, and the defendant cannot If the legal source of the money is explained, according to the provisions of Article 64 of the Criminal Law, it shall be deemed as illegal income and shall be recovered.”

Secondly, let’s continue talking about USDT As for the matter, if I received stolen money when I sold virtual currency, do I need to get a refund? How to defrost?

As mentioned above, if it is a legal and normal transaction investment, even if you unfortunately receive stolen money, as long as it is proven that it was obtained in good faith, there is no need to refund. However, virtual currency-related business activities are relatively embarrassing in our country. To put it simply, virtual currency, as virtual property, can be legally held, but investment transactions involving virtual currency are not currently recognized by law. According to the notice jointly issued by the People's Bank of China and other ministries and commissions ("924 Notice"), virtual currency-related business activities are classified as illegal financial activities. Among them, the exchange business between legal currency and virtual currency, the exchange business between virtual currency and other related activities are considered illegal financial activities and are resolutely banned. In judicial practice, sales contracts involving virtual currencies are often deemed invalid by the courts. Therefore, although the price obtained from selling virtual currency itself should not be considered illegal like gambling funds, it is currently not protected by law. Therefore, it is difficult to claim that U’s receipt itself is legally obtained money. .

Although some people believe that unlike platforms that are absolutely prohibited from buying and selling virtual currencies, virtual currency transactions between individuals should be legal and valid. However, based on the current practical situation involving the unfreezing of U-frozen cards, it is difficult for an individual to accidentally receive stolen money while speculating in coins as being obtained legally and in good faith. In short, it must be refunded!

Finally, generally speaking, if the payee returns the stolen goods according to the steps required by the case handling agency, the bank card should be unfrozen.

However, it does not rule out the situation that the freeze has not yet been released, such as the complexity of the criminal case involved, the busy affairs of the case handling agency, etc., resulting in the bank card not being able to be used immediately. Therefore,after cooperating with the investigation and returning the stolen goods, you can ask about the unfreezing status in a timely manner after a period of time. If necessary, you can find professionals to consult on your behalf instead of waiting or being anxious.