The United States has charged two Chinese nationalists with obstruction of justice by bribing a US government employee with $61,000 in bitcoin.

According to the Justice Department statement, these two Chinese, named Guochun He and Zheng Wang, respectively, “allegedly attempted to hide their position as Intelligence Officers of the People’s Republic of China (China).” Two suspects attempted to interfere with the prosecution by obtaining classified and confidential information from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in connection with the ongoing federal criminal investigation and prosecution of a Chinese telecommunications company headquartered in China.

According to Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter identified the Chinese company as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Two suspects are currently Dear by the FBI.

Source: FBI

“Much more than an effort to gather information or intelligence, the actions of the PRC intelligence officers charged in this case should be called out for what they are,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen. .

According to the statement, the defendant is charged with two counts of money laundering based on bribe payments totaling approximately $61,000 in Bitcoin, made to further the scheme.

However, the recruit from a US law enforcement agency was actually working as a “double agent” under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to the complaint.

Attorney General Merrick Garland added in the statement: “This was an egregious attempt by PRC intelligence officials to shield a PRC-based company from liability and undermine the integrity of our judicial system.” .

Speaking of Bitcoin bribes, in 2020, a Russian police officer named Yuri Zaitsev was sentenced to eight years in prison for accepting a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency bribe from a dark web drug dealer in exchange for their professional services.

As reported by Blockchain.News, the investigation began 2 years before its fall. The former police officer was reportedly the former department head of a drug trafficking task force operating under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Khakassia. Ultimately, he was found guilty of receiving a cryptocurrency bribe and revealing state secrets.

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