In one of the most high-profile spying cases, Taiwan’s top court convicted eight Chinese espionage suspects using crypto to make payments.
According to Bloomberg, which cites Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, Taiwanese military troops engaged in a significant espionage case were paid with Bitcoin by Chinese intelligence.
In what the newspaper refers to as “one of the largest espionage cases in years,” Taiwan’s high court has found eight people guilty of gathering state secrets for China, including active-duty and retired military commanders.
The report doesn’t say which cryptocurrency was paid with or if the transactions were made possible by a third party. The court sentenced the offenders to one and a half to thirteen years in prison.
According to information released by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, “virtual currency” was utilized to make payments to the people who were recruited by the Chinese Communist Party to obtain military intelligence.Â
This instance emphasizes the intelligence agencies’ continuous use of digital assets for clandestine operations, even in China, where Bitcoin trading is prohibited.Â
China Signals Interest in Crypto for Espionage
China banned all crypto transactions in 2021, citing financial stability and crime prevention concerns. However, the use of cryptocurrencies in the most recent espionage case suggests that Chinese intelligence agents still take advantage of the convenience and secrecy digital assets provide for cross-border transactions.
Chinese intelligence officials paid Bitcoin bribes to an American government employee in order to get data linked to the prosecution of a Chinese telecom corporation, which is thought to be Huawei, as the U.S. Department of Justice previously disclosed.
In that instance, Bitcoin was used by Chinese agents, and blockchain analytics showed that the spies covered up their transaction traces via privacy-enhancing apps like Wasabi Wallet.
