China sentences former party official to life in prison for crypto mining corruption, power abuse

China has sentenced a former party official to life imprisonment for corruptive activities, including those related to cryptocurrency mining, a Chinese court pronounced today.

Yi Xiao, a former provincial-level official in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, was accused of abusing his power to facilitate crypto-mining activities.

The court trial in Hangzhou, a city in East China’s Zhejiang province, found that, from 2008 to 2021, Xiao took advantage of his positions, including his role as a vice chairman of the Jiangxi provincial committee of the People’s political consultative conference, to illegally accept more than 125 million yuan ($17.1 million) in bribes, the court said.

Also, when Xiao served as a party secretary of Fuzhou city from 2017 to 2021, he assisted companies engaged in crypto mining, “resulting in significant losses to public property, national and people’s interests,” the court said.

As a result, Xiao was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of political rights for life and had all personal property confiscated.

China’s crypto ban

Unlike its neighboring Hong Kong, which is actively developing the crypto and Web3 industries, China banned all crypto transactions on the mainland in September 2021.

China started a broader crackdown on crypto mining in May 2021 in some provinces.

Last week, a local court in the Guangxi autonomous region said it heard a case of Shenzhen Shikongyun Technology, one of the largest Filecoin mining firms in China, for its alleged involvement in an $83.3 million pyramid scheme.