A local news source from China informed that Chinese Police had confiscated various cryptocurrencies. It was informed that approximately US$ 4 billion worth of digital currency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, had been seized.
Since the last three months, Chinese law enforcement agencies had initiated a large-scale crypto crackdown in the country. The operation was launched to stop the illegal use of cryptocurrencies as well as illegal gambling.
Many private complainants had filed complaints before the Chinese Authorities as well seeking a refund of their looted money. A large number of complaints were against PlusToken which had launched a fraud tokenized security scheme and defrauded Chinese investors.
Permissions were later sought by law enforcement agencies to conduct raids and apprehend the criminals. It was later confirmed that the Chinese Police had conducted successful raids and apprehended 7 prime suspects. These suspects were told to be the mastermind behind the fraud scheme under PlusToken.
Earlier, the Chinese Police had arrested about 109 different people who were attached to the PlusToken scheme. But the prime suspects, who were the real operators, were absconding and changing their locations from time to time.
Chinese Authorities informed that in the recent raid they had apprehended the prime suspects. It also told that digital currency worth US$4.2 Billion had been seized which was in possession of the arrested persons. By far this was the biggest seizure of digital currency conducted by local police authorized, told a Government official.
Further details of the raid suggested that the seized digital currency included Bitcoin to the tune of 194,775. A total of 833,083 Ethereum too had been recovered along with 1.4 million Litcoin. The other crypto assets which got seized in millions and billions included EOS, Dash, Dogecoin, XRP, Tether, and Bitcoin Cash.
Meanwhile, China’s Yancheng Intermediate People’s Court had passed an order for the arrest of the accused. The order directed the authorities also to seize any digital currencies found in the custody of the accused. As per the ruling of the Court, the confiscated digital currency was required to be deposited in the Government’s treasury.
PlusToken started its operation in China in the year 2018 and soon acquired 2 million users from China alone.