Sentencing cases of pyramid selling virtual currency
(1) at present, there is no regulation to regulate the trading platform, but the trading platform should also fulfill the audit obligation. For example, when online trading various network virtual currencies, it should audit whether the currency is a network virtual currency based on blockchain technology
(2) if the trading platform knows that the online trading currency is suspected of MLM, but in order to collect Commission, it also provides trading services for the currency and promotes its development, once the currency is identified as MLM, the trading platform may have to bear certain legal liabilities
(3) at the same time, a large number of customers' funds are stored in the accounts of virtual currency trading institutions. However, all online virtual currency trading institutions are not qualified to absorb public funds, which makes trading institutions face the potential risk of illegal fund-raising
the 2017 version of the guide to the identification of internet pyramid selling (hereinafter referred to as the guide) lists several differences between virtual currency and pyramid selling currency:
(1) from the perspective of issuing mode, virtual currency does not rely on specific monetary institutions, it is a decentralized issuing mode according to specific algorithms; The MLM currency is mainly issued by a certain institution, and the profit is made by pulling the head
(2) from the perspective of transaction mode, virtual currency is a kind of sporadic transaction spontaneously formed by the market. After the scale is formed, the transaction is graally completed by a third party establishing an exchange, while MLM currency is issued by an institution and traded on its own platform
(3) from the perspective of implementation, virtual currency itself is an open source program, while the open source of MLM currency is completely ing other people's open source code, and there is no use of open source code to build programs, which is essentially controlled by the website as Q coin.
According to the news on February 10, 2018, on September 4, 2017, seven ministries and commissions of the people's Republic of China issued the notice on preventing the financing risk of token issuance, which regulates the issuance of tokens. In the notice, the nature of all kinds of tokens and "virtual currency" is clearly defined: it is not issued by the monetary authority, and it has no monetary attributes such as legal compensation and mandatory, It does not have the same legal status as currency and cannot and should not be used as currency in the market. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that all kinds of "virtual currency" still have a certain property value and are part of the property of the holder. So, how to identify the nature of the theft of such tokens
In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of "virtual token" holders, the author intends to discuss such issues through a relevant news report and relevant casesstealing bitcoin
recently, a news report said that Haidian police in Beijing cracked a case of destroying computer information system. The suspect Zhong used his administrator's authority to modify the company's computer applications and steal 100 bitcoins. Before he could sell the stolen money, Zhong was arrested by the police. At present, Zhong was detained for the crime of destroying computer information system
it can be seen from the report that the police detained the perpetrator for stealing bitcoin on suspicion of damaging the computer information system. The crime of destroying the computer information system stipulated in Article 286 of the criminal law of our country refers to the act of deleting, modifying, adding or interfering with the functions of the computer information system in violation of the provisions of the state, resulting in the abnormal operation of the computer information system and serious consequences, or deleting, modifying or interfering with the data and application programs stored, processed or transmitted in the computer information system Modifying or adding operations with serious consequences, or deliberately making or spreading destructive programs such as computer viruses, which affect the normal operation of the computer system with serious consequences
In the author's opinion, this crime is one of the crimes of impairing social management order in Chapter 6 of the criminal law, that is, the legal interest protected by this crime is actually the public order of our society, not the property interests of the digital currency holders, which in fact denies the property value of digital currency, It is only protected as a data or system function in a computer system. The author thinks that there is some irrationality in this wayfirst of all, in the notice on the prevention of bitcoin risk issued in 2013, it is mentioned that bitcoin is not a real currency because it is not issued by the monetary authority and does not have such monetary attributes as legal compensation and compulsion. Bitcoin has four main characteristics: no centralized issuers, limited amount, no geographical restrictions and anonymity. Because it belongs to a specific virtual commodity in nature The notice also clearly mentioned that bitcoin does not have the same legal status as currency and should not be used as currency in the market. However, as a virtual commodity, the property value behind bitcoin cannot be ignored
Secondly, Article 127 of the general provisions of the civil law, which came into effect on October 1 last year, stipulates that if the law has provisions on the protection of data and network virtual property, such provisions shall prevail. Although only the protection of the network virtual property has made the principle provisions, but it can not be denied that this shows our country's attitude towards the protection of the network virtual property. Although there is no special law for the protection of data and network virtual property in China, from the perspective of the general provisions of civil law, it is predicted that there will be relevant legislation in the futurefinally, from the relevant cases, we can also see the recognition of the property attribute of virtual currency such as bitcoin in China's judicial practice. In April and may 2013, Liu premeditated to set up a bitcoin trading platform, so he recruited Jin and Huang (both sentenced) to jointly set up a "bitcoin" trading platform. During this period, Liu, Huang, Jin, Jin and the defendant he, in addition to other acts of directly stealing customers' funds, also frequently cashed RMB by selling customers' bitcoins, and transferred 120 bitcoins from the website. Finally, the court convicted and punished the defendant for fraud, and the bitcoin transferred by the defendant was also included in the property loss of the victim. Therefore, from the judicial cases, we can also get the recognition of the property attributes of virtual currency such as bitcoin
based on the above reasons, the author thinks that it may be unreasonable to regulate the theft of virtual currency only as the crime of damaging computer information system. We should face up to the hidden property value and consider the application of the crime of infringing property in China's criminal law. Only in this way can we effectively protect the legitimate rights and property of digital currency holders in China
the Supreme People's court, the procuratorate and the Ministry of public security
opinions on Several Issues concerning the application of law in handling criminal cases involving organization and leadership of pyramid selling activities
GTZ [2013] No. 37
I. determination of the level and number of pyramid selling organizations
participants are required to pay fees or purchase goods, provide services and other business activities in the name of selling goods and providing services A pyramid selling organization that has obtained the qualification to join by service or other means, and formed a hierarchy according to a certain order, directly or indirectly taking the number of development personnel as the basis for remuneration or rebate, luring or intimidating the participants to continue to develop others to participate, defraud property, and disrupt the economic and social order, with more than 30 people participating in pyramid selling activities within the organization and with a hierarchy of more than three, The organizers and leaders should be investigated for criminal responsibility
if you organize or lead multiple MLM organizations, and the level of a single or multiple organizations has reached three or more, you can combine the number of people who have developed in each organization
if the organizers and leaders continue to get remuneration or rebate from the original MLM organization after formally leaving the original MLM organization, the level and number of the development personnel of the original MLM organization after leaving shall be calculated as the level and number of the development personnel
in handling the criminal cases of organizing and leading pyramid selling activities, if it is really impossible to collect the verbal evidence of the participants one by one e to the limitation of objective conditions, it can be combined with the evidence collected and verified according to law, such as the payment, payment, payment and rebate records, audio-visual materials, relationship diagram of pyramid selling personnel, bank account transaction records, Internet electronic data, expert opinions, etc, Comprehensively identify the number of people involved in pyramid selling, the number of levels and other criminal facts.
"mark coin" is an upgraded version of "bitcoin". It is a kind of virtual currency and has high value-added in external publicity. Its main mode is: Online introctions and offline participation are required, and each offline will provide its name, e-mail address and mobile phone number to online users, who will help to register. After successful account registration, transfer the corresponding level of money to the company's designated account. Then everyone will give an account and password to log on to the website, and the backstage can see everyone's investment amount and dividend details. On January 18 this year, the company held a meeting in Macao, and most of the participants were Chinese
"markcoin" is similar to some other online pyramid schemes. It is said that the investment is small and the income is high. Although there is a static bonus, if there is any real income, it needs to obtain dynamic awards such as sales award, collision award and algebra award, and to obtain these dynamic awards, it must develop a large number of offline procts
according to the police, at present, there are not only "mark coin" and "bitcoin", but also "black tea", "Baichuan coin", "dark coin", "3M", "carat coin", "petroleum coin", "Huaqiang coin", "U coin", "Morgan coin", "Fuda compound wealth management", "WorldCom", "21st Century Fox" and "Wanxi wealth management". The target of lawbreakers' development is Internet users who are keen on surfing the Internet. The target of lawbreakers' development is graally infiltrating from young people to middle-aged people and unemployed people, luring them to invest in small, big returns and wait for high returns. In fact, the so-called static dividend is just a cover. Many people continue to develop offline in order to earn benefits, which is no different from the traditional pyramid scheme. Moreover, the running cycle of this kind of MLM is short, generally less than a year. When it comes to the rebate peak, the website will be closed directly, causing many people to lose their money.
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