Coin World News Report:
I. Introduction
Recently, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate released the “Criminal Prosecution White Paper (2023)” (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-YAAaoDT6MCb6CZ7Wt01TA), summarizing the criminal prosecution work nationwide in 2023. It mentioned that the national procuratorial organs accepted and reviewed a total of 1,209,052 suspects for arrest, and approved the arrest of 726,000 people after review; they accepted and reviewed 2,511,263 suspects for prosecution, and decided to prosecute 1.688 million people after review; all of which showed an upward trend compared to previous years.
According to the Supreme Procuratorate:
In the cases of reviewing and arresting, theft, fraud, assisting in information network crime (hereinafter referred to as “assisting crime”), concealing and hiding criminal proceeds, and concealing criminal proceeds and income (hereinafter referred to as “concealing crime”) and operating gambling establishments accounted for 48.4% in total;
In the cases of reviewing and prosecuting, dangerous driving, theft, assisting crime, concealing crime, and fraud accounted for 53.7% in total.
In other words, in part of the dangerous driving cases, the public security organs directly took weak compulsory measures such as release on bail pending trial; while in most of the fraud cases, the suspects were transferred to the procuratorate for review and arrest. In terms of quantity, dangerous driving has an overwhelming advantage and is “far ahead” in the first place.
We will conduct a big data analysis on the top five charges prosecuted by the procuratorial organs: dangerous driving, theft, assisting crime, concealing crime, fraud, and the fifth charge in the review and arrest, which is also a common crime in the cryptocurrency circle, operating gambling establishments.
[img]
Image Source: Supreme Procuratorate Official Account
II. Analysis of Charges
1. Dangerous Driving
Through the search tool “alpha”, we found the characteristics of dangerous driving offenses as follows:
[img]
Throughout 2023, there were a total of 43,439 judgments on dangerous driving offenses made by the courts and publicly available online, which is definitely lower than the normal data. The reason behind this is that the rate of criminal case judgments being made available online is relatively low.
In terms of regional distribution, Henan, Guangdong, Inner Mongolia, and other places have a higher number of cases. The most common factor in dangerous driving offenses is drunk driving. From this, we can also see that although the country has been cracking down on drunk driving for more than a decade, and “don’t drink and drive, don’t drink if you drive” has become a common saying among diners, there are still a large number of people who challenge the law. This also requires us to re-understand the relevant concepts in criminology. Crime is a social phenomenon, and it is impossible to completely eradicate it by enacting certain regulations. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain the well-known saying that even children know, “killing requires life”. However, there are still many people who are willing to violate the provisions of the criminal law.
(2) Theft
In 2023, a total of 14,256 theft-related judgments were published by the courts nationwide, which is certainly much lower than the actual number (even multiplied by 10). Based on the publicly available data, it shows an increasing trend on a monthly basis, and Shanghai, Guangdong, and Henan ranked among the top three in terms of regional distribution.
[img]
[img]
Through the search, Liu found that there were four theft-related cases involving Bitcoin. However, upon closer inspection, it was not because the suspects stole Bitcoin that the cases occurred. Interestingly, one of the judgments was due to the suspect stealing electricity for mining and was convicted of theft.
However, in reality, our team receives a large number of consultations every week, and some of them involve individuals’ virtual currencies being stolen. Through our services, some of the parties involved have successfully reported the cases to the police. With the rise in Bitcoin’s market value, the number of virtual currency theft cases is bound to continue to increase. Liu also reminds everyone to choose reliable wallets to store their virtual currencies.
(3) Assisting Crime
The crime of assisting crime has been widely used by judicial authorities since 2018, almost in sync with the “cut-off card operation” because the threshold for this crime is relatively low (corresponding to the low difficulty for judicial authorities to prove guilt). The maximum sentence is only three years, which, in a sense, “encourages” defense lawyers not to put too much effort into defense – after all, breakthrough defense results, such as acquittal or downgraded punishment, are difficult to achieve. Of course, there are still diligent defense lawyers in reality.
From the data analysis, there were only 10,128 judgments on assisting crime publicly available online in 2023, which is completely out of touch with reality. The main reason is the declining initiative of the courts to publish judgment documents. In terms of regional distribution, Shanghai, Hunan, and Henan courts published the most judgments.
[img]
[img]
The relationship between assisting crime and the cryptocurrency circle mainly involves OTC transactions on U platforms and the use of virtual currencies for scoring in racing teams. This is also a constant reminder from lawyer Liu to cryptocurrency novices: do not lend your bank cards, phone cards, ID cards, and other personal information to others for a little profit, or help others register or transfer funds for virtual currency wallets and exchanges. Once it involves illicit money and dirty U, it will generally be charged with assisting crime.
(4) Concealing Crime
Concealing crime can be understood as an “upgraded version” of assisting crime. One difference is that the burden of proof for concealing crime is stricter than that of assisting crime, and secondly, the maximum sentence for concealing crime is significantly higher than that of assisting crime. Concealing crime has shown relatively stable performance among the more than 480 criminal charges in the Criminal Law, and even a slight downward trend in recent years (with only over 6,000 judgments publicly available in 2023). However, considering the background of the “cut-off card operation”, its volume will not be small, as it still ranks fourth in terms of the number of charges prosecuted by the national procuratorial organs. Its strength should not be underestimated.
[img]
[img]
The relationship between concealing crime and the cryptocurrency circle is not much different from assisting crime, except that in addition to providing assistance in payment settlement for other crimes, it also provides assistance in transfers, face-to-face cash withdrawals, and on-site cash withdrawals.
(5) Fraud
Fraud is considered a serious offense in the field of property crimes. According to the current standards, once the amount of fraud exceeds 500,000, the minimum sentence is 10 years’ imprisonment; especially in the cryptocurrency circle, where projects involving millions or tens of millions are seemingly everywhere, once recognized as fraud by judicial authorities, the consequences are naturally not optimistic.
From the data, there were a total of 4,696 publicly available cases of fraud published by the courts nationwide in 2023, which is certainly much lower than the actual number of cases. In terms of regional distribution, Shanghai, Henan, and Liaoning ranked among the top three.
[img]
[img]
(6) Operating Gambling Establishments
Although operating gambling establishments is not among the top five charges prosecuted by the procuratorial organs, it is among the top five charges transferred by the public security organs to the procuratorate for approval of arrest. Traditional offline gambling establishments, from small-scale chess and card rooms to large-scale casinos, are definitely old-time now. Even online casinos in web2, despite having many “beautiful dealers dealing cards online,” are gradually being overshadowed by the aura of web3, especially as the consensus on virtual currencies among the general public strengthens. It seems that online gambling using virtual currencies is the trend of the new era. However, crime is still crime, and once individuals are caught in criminal justice, it is difficult to evade legal risks, even if they use virtual currencies. This is especially true when it comes to gambling establishments involved in money laundering of stolen funds or online scams targeting Chinese mainland users, which may be subject to severe punishment.
Based on the data retrieved by Liu, there were only 2,839 publicly available judgments on gambling-related charges published by the courts nationwide in 2023, with Shanghai, Henan, Hubei, and other regions having the highest concentration.
[img]
[img]
III. Conclusion
“Hoping that people in the world will be free from illness, why not let the medicine on the shelf gather dust” is the wish of a good doctor. “A world without thieves” is the wish of a great director. It is believed that “a world without crimes” is the sincere wish of legal professionals including lawyers and judicial personnel. Even Liu can come up with a sentence like “hoping that there will be no crimes in the world, why let the prison window rust.” However, looking at the data from the Supreme Procuratorate in 2023, it is difficult to achieve this wish. Instead, the workload of the public security, procuratorial, and judicial organs has only become heavier. As a criminal defense lawyer, Liu hopes that every case can receive fair and just treatment, and every party, even if guilty, should be held accountable within the scope of the law. This is also the meaning of the existence of lawyers, to a certain extent, it can prevent judicial authorities from making mistakes in handling cases.
Another point to mention is that according to the data retrieved by Liu, several charges are “among the top” in Shanghai and Henan, which happens to be related to me – whether it is now or in the past. This not only demonstrates that the transparency of the judicial system in these two places is relatively good but does not prove anything else.
