introduction
In the past two years, a term has begun to circulate in the legal circle, especially in the criminal defense circle: "distant-water fishing", which roughly means that some local judicial organs conduct cross-provincial law enforcement to generate revenue. The purpose of handling cases is not to combat crime or uphold the law, but mainly to generate revenue.
1. Deep-sea fishing in the cryptocurrency world
This situation actually exists in the cryptocurrency industry, especially since most cryptocurrency cases are criminal cases. From the perspective of criminal defense, we do have more or less problems in some criminal cases involving virtual currencies, whether in terms of procedural filing, jurisdiction, investigation and freezing of property involved, or in terms of the actual crime composition, the difference between this crime and that crime, etc.
Based on the strong regulatory policy on virtual currency in China, some grassroots judicial organs subconsciously think of illegal crimes as soon as they see virtual currency. At the same time, because some people in the cryptocurrency circle are indeed "very rich", the "perfect" combination of these two factors makes the judicial organs' crackdown on the cryptocurrency circle no less severe than traditional economic crimes.
II. Changes in Criminal Policy
However, since March this year, we have learned that the country may have to put the brakes on "distant-sea fishing". An internally circulated document shows that the Ministry of Public Security issued a special notice in March this year on the "Regulations on the Jurisdiction of Public Security Organs over Cross-Provincial Enterprise-Related Crime Cases", which introduced stricter regulations for public security organs to handle cross-provincial cases involving enterprise crimes.
What followed was a significant cooling of “distant-sea fishing”, and the cryptocurrency circle could also clearly feel this “spring breeze”.
3. Sources of criminal legal risks in the cryptocurrency industry
As criminal defense lawyers in the cryptocurrency industry, we often deal with charges such as: organizing and leading pyramid schemes; opening casinos; illegal business operations; assisting in information network criminal activities (assisting crime); concealing and hiding the proceeds of crime (concealment crime). In addition, there are traditional fraud, theft, computer crimes, and so on.
At the same time, criminal offenses in the cryptocurrency world can basically be covered by cybercrime. The jurisdiction (filing of a case) of cybercrime is very broad. What is cybercrime? According to current regulations, it includes the following types:
The first is traditional computer crime (crime cases endangering computer information networks);
The second is crimes related to the Internet (crimes of aiding and abetting, crimes of illegal use of information networks, crimes of refusing to perform obligations of information network security management, etc.);
The third category includes other criminal cases such as fraud, gambling, infringement of citizens’ personal information, etc. carried out through the Internet.
In terms of specific case filing jurisdiction, in principle, the public security bureau at the place where the crime was committed shall be the main authority for filing a case. However, the place of residence of the suspect, the location of the server used for the network service used to commit the cybercrime, the location of the network service provider, the location of the compromised information network system and its manager, the location of the information network system used by the suspect, victim or other persons involved in the case during the crime, the location where the victim was violated, and the location where the victim's property was lost, etc. all have jurisdiction to file a case.
Back to the cryptocurrency world, we mentioned above that many grassroots judicial organs subconsciously believe that cryptocurrency speculation is illegal (in fact, this perception has no legal basis). In addition, the scope of jurisdiction in cryptocurrency criminal cases is so large that even if the public security in place A does not file a case, it cannot guarantee that the public security in place B will not file a case (because cryptocurrency cases are cybercrimes, and there are too many connection points for the filing and jurisdiction of cybercrimes), so it is normal to cross provinces.
At the same time, according to the above-mentioned regulations of the Ministry of Public Security, the main regulation now is cross-provincial cases involving enterprises. Many cases in the cryptocurrency circle are "small workshops" and do not involve the factor of "involving enterprises". This also leads to the fact that even if there is a "magic sword" of "Regulations on the Jurisdiction of Cross-Provincial Enterprise-Related Criminal Cases by Public Security Organs", it is difficult to guarantee that the cryptocurrency circle will not be caught.
Therefore, it is difficult for the cryptocurrency circle’s deep-sea fishing to end in a short period of time.
IV. Conclusion
The movement of cryptocurrency going overseas has not been completely ended since the "9.4 Announcement" in 2017. The dispute between the "cryptocurrency circle" and the "chain circle" in the web3 field has never ended. Singapore, as a financially open city, will also start implementing its own new web3 policy on June 30 (mainly affecting the cryptocurrency circle). It seems that the contradiction between virtual currencies (and the cryptocurrency circles derived from them) that are naturally resistant to regulation and control and centralized regulators will never be reconciled. The best model can only be that centralized regulators and decentralized supporters learn to get along with each other like hedgehogs and find a safe and comfortable distance from each other, so that they can coexist and develop.
