Chinese Intelligence Officers Accused of Using Bitcoin for Bribery

Two Chinese government intelligence officers, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, have been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for trying to use $61,000 worth of Bitcoin to bribe a U.S. government employee. Crypto entering the spy game, in this case, is part of a wider Chinese intelligence operation, whose 13 additional agents have also been indicted.

Reportedly, Wang and He were after the information pertaining to the U.S. federal investigation of the Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei. The agents were planning to share these files with Huawei after obtaining them. For this purpose, they approached a double agent loyal to the U.S. government, to whom they’ve already paid Bitcoin worth $20,000 this month.

Analysis by the blockchain security company Elliptic has shown that the agents have used the mixing service, Wasabi Wallet, in an attempt to cover the trace of money. Earlier this year, another service provider of this kind, Tornado Cash, was banned in the US for this reason in a much-debated move.

Guochun He and Zheng Wang are awaiting trial. They’re facing up to 60 and 20 years behind bars, respectively.