Xiao Yi, a former Chinese government official, has been sentenced to life in prison for helping subsidize a secret, large-scale Bitcoin mining operation within the country’s borders, alongside unrelated acts of corruption. Yi pled guilty to the charges and has already returned the stolen funds and seen the seizure of both the bribes and his gains.Yi was convicted of abusing his power by providing financial and electricity subsidies to Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, a company based in Fuzhou. This firm was responsible for operating over 160,000 Bitcoin mining machines at one point and accounted for 10% of the city’s electricity consumption between 2017 and 2020. Yi attempted to conceal the illicit mining operation by creating fabricated statistical reports and manipulating electricity consumption data.In addition to the Bitcoin mining charges, Yi was also accused of bribery activities spanning from 2008 to 2021. He allegedly abused his multiple positions, including director of the Beijing Office of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government, secretary of the Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee of Jiangxi Province, and vice chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference. Yi was found to have illegally received property equivalent to more than 125 million yuan ($17 million), of which more than 57.82 million yuan ($7.9 million) has not been actually obtained.China currently enforces a blanket ban on all crypto-related activities beyond simple ownership. This includes crypto mining, exchange services, fiat-to-crypto onboarding, and transactions. Despite this, China still accounts for 21% of the global Bitcoin hash rate, making it the largest country for mining aside from the United States. The state-owned telecom operator recently proposed a “Digital Identity System” to keep track of all local metaverse users.
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | Asia |
| Countries | 🇨🇳 🇺🇸 |
| Sentiment | negative |
| Relevance Score | 8 |
| People | Xiao Yi, Hangzhou People’s Court, Beijing Office of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government, Fuzhou Municipal Party Committee of Jiangxi Province, Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference. |
| Currencies | Bitcoin, Ethereum, Yuan, USD, None |
| Securities | None |
