Stealing more than one million virtual currencies
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 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 the people's Republic of China refers to the act of deleting, modifying, adding or interfering with the functions of the computer information system in violation of the state regulations, resulting in the abnormal operation of the computer information system and serious consequences, or the act of deleting, modifying, adding 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
this crime is one of the crimes of impairing social management order in Chapter 6 of the criminal law, that is, the legal interests protected by this crime are actually the public order of our society, not the property interests of the digital currency holders. In fact, it denies the property value of digital currency, but only protects it as a data or system function in a computer system. The author thinks that there is some irrationality in this way
first of all, in the notice on preventing bitcoin risks issued in 2013, it is mentioned that bitcoin is not a real currency because it is not issued by the monetary authority and has no monetary attributes such 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 network virtual property has been made in principle, it can not be denied that it shows our attitude towards the protection of 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 future
finally, from the relevant cases, we can also see the recognition of the property attributes of virtual currencies such as bitcoin in China's judicial practice.
learned from the Xi'an Municipal Public Security Bureau's opening branch recently that the "3. 30" network hacker theft virtual currency case was broken down nearly half a year, and 3 suspect suspects were all arrested. The initial investigation found that the gang involved in the case reached 600 million yuan. p>
on March 30, 2018, the economic development branch of Xi'an Public Security Bureau received an alarm from the victim Zhang, claiming that his personal computer was suspected to have been illegally intruded, and a large number of virtual currencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum were looted, with a market value of over 100 million yuan. The Municipal Public Security Bureau quickly set up a special group to carry out the detection work
has been examined by the 3 suspects as hacker. Many illegal gains have been obtained through illegal invasion, control of company's enterprise and personal network system, and the amount of suspect involved has reached 600 million yuan. At present, the case is still under further investigation
(1) stealing financial institutions, with a particularly large amount of money 2 Stealing precious cultural relics, if the circumstances are serious
Article 3 of the interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the specific application of law in the trial of theft cases, the standards for "large amount", "huge amount" and "especially huge amount" of theft of public and private property are as follows: (1) if the value of personal theft of public and private property is between 500 yuan and 2000 yuan, it is "large amount" 2 If an indivial steals public or private property with a value of 5000 yuan to more than 20000 yuan, it is a "huge amount". 3 If an indivial steals public or private property with a value of 30000 yuan to more than 100000 yuan, "the amount is particularly huge."
the higher people's courts of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government may, according to the local economic development situation and taking into account the social security situation, respectively determine the standards of "large amount", "huge amount", "especially huge amount" to be implemented in the region within the amount range specified in the preceding paragraph< Article 6 in the trial of a theft case, the circumstances of the crime of theft shall be determined according to the specific circumstances of the case:
5< (3) if the amount of theft reaches the starting point of "large amount" or "huge amount" and has one of the following circumstances, it can be identified as "other serious circumstances" or "other particularly serious circumstances" respectively:
1. The ringleader of a criminal group or the principal offender with serious circumstances in a joint crime; 2. Stealing from financial institutions; 3. Those who commit crimes by fleeing and causing serious harm; 4. Recidivist; 5. Causing the death, mental disorder or other serious consequences of the victim; 6. Stealing money and materials for disaster relief, emergency rescue, flood control, preferential treatment, poverty alleviation, immigration, relief and medical treatment, causing serious consequences; 7. Stealing means of proction, seriously affecting proction; 8. Causing other heavy losses
this will be taken into consideration when sentencing