The spies, who seem to have used Wasabi Wallet, set up an FBI double agent without knowing it.
![Chinese Intelligence Tried to Bribe U.S. Official With Bitcoin](https://i0.wp.com/coinscreed.com/akoakris/2022/10/image-139.png?resize=1001%2C555&ssl=1)
Two Chinese intelligence officers are being charged with obstructing justice by the U.S. Department of Justice. They are said to have tried to bribe a U.S. government worker with $61,000 in Bitcoin to steal documents related to an investigation into a China-based company.
During a press conference to announce the arrest of the two operatives, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “The Justice Department will not allow any foreign power to try to undermine the rule of law, which is the foundation of our democracy.”
The DOJ says that the operation started in 2019 when two intelligence officers met with a government worker who was also a double agent for the FBI.
The U.S. Justice Department said that Guochun He and Zheng Wang tried to steal files and other information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The two officers are said to have been looking for documents related to a federal investigation and prosecution of a global telecommunications company based in the People’s Republic of China. The company is called “Company-1” in the filing.
The charges from the DOJ include conspiring to send PRC citizens back to their home country against their will, trying to stop a criminal investigation, and conspiring to act as an illegal agent of a foreign country.
The Department of Justice filed this complaint along with another one about a larger sting operation and 13 other people who have also been charged.
In the complaint, the DOJ says that Guochun told a government worker in September 2022 that the government would pay more in Bitcoin for information beyond what had already been given. In October, the employee was paid $20,000 in Bitcoin, which is a digital currency.
After that, Blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic said that its analysis of the Bitcoin transactions in the case shows that the Chinese agents tried to hide the transactions by using the Wasabi Wallet mixing service.
Tom Robinson, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder at Elliptic, told Decrypt in an email, “There was enough information in the criminal complaint to uniquely identify the bitcoin transactions.” “Then, we used our blockchain analytics tools to find out where the payments came from and how Wasabi was being used.”
Robinson says that Elliptic uses “special techniques” to find the bitcoin addresses that belong to Wasabi Wallet.
In a statement, United States Attorney Breon Peace said, “Today’s complaint shows how hard the PRC government works to undermine the rule of law.” “It is said that PRC intelligence officers tried to stop an ongoing criminal investigation by paying bribes to get files from this office and then giving them to a global telecommunications company that was charged in the investigation.”
Bitcoin’s use in crimes has been a stick for regulators for a long time. Officials all over the world have used these cases to call for digital assets and cryptocurrencies to be banned. In 2022, U.S. officials stepped up their efforts to stop criminals from using cryptocurrency for money laundering and other illegal activities. One way they did this was by making it illegal for U.S. citizens to use the Tornado Cash service for mixing Ethereum coins.
“The same things that make digital assets appealing to criminals, like not being able to be censored and being easy to move across borders, also make them useful tools for intelligence agencies looking to fund covert operations,” Elliptic wrote.
If Guochun is found guilty, He could go to jail for up to 60 years, and Wang could go to jail for up to 20 years.
Peace said, “We will always take strong action to stop crimes that go after our justice system.”