China Sentences Official for Espionage Fueled by Crypto Debt

Chinese official Wang Moumou just received a life imprisonment for selling secret documents to British intelligence. Wang racked up heavy debts due to failed crypto trading, and received crypto in payment for espionage.

Official reports from Chinese Ministries have not demonized the crypto community, however, and mostly focused on Wang’s own mistakes.

Wang’s Crypto Misfortunes

According to a recent report from Anping Province’s Ministry of National Security, a Chinese official named Wang Moumou was just sentenced to life in prison. Wang stands convicted of espionage, selling documents and other photos to foreign intelligence agencies. He started this path due to massive debts from failed crypto trades, and received crypto in return for his services.

“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. In the end, Wang was sentenced to life imprisonment by the People’s Court for the crime of espionage,” the report said.

In this conviction statement, Chinese authorities did not accuse a specific foreign government of recruiting Wang. However, in previous coverage from June, they accused MI6, the British intelligence agency, of recruiting a man named Wang Moumou as a spy. It seems extremely likely that these two incidents in one year refer to the same person.

Wang’s criminal involvement with the world of cryptocurrency is far from an isolated incident. For example, a famous North Korean hacker group already uses crypto to fund espionage operations. Three years ago, a US nuclear engineer attempted to sell secrets for crypto, but his “foreign handler” was actually part of an FBI sting operation.

The Anping Ministry strongly disparaged Wang’s character and his overall sloppiness, but made only the briefest mention of his enduring crypto interest. The hope of China lifting its Bitcoin ban has persistently remained in the global community. It seems somewhat encouraging that state media had a chance to demonize crypto, and didn’t take it.

China has shown several slightly hopeful signs towards the space in the last year. At the recent BRICS Summit, for example, it was one of the leading architects of a new international payments platform based on blockchain technology. The nation has also been integrating its CBDC, the digital yuan, into more local payment systems.

Ultimately, though, this espionage incident is only a possible weathervane into China’s crypto stance. Of course, it’s hardly good representation for the community, if Wang’s failed crypto trades led him to commit treason. Nevertheless, the state’s thorough condemnation focused on his individual failings, and did not moralize about the “corruptive powers” of crypto.