Recently, Hunan police successfully dismantled a cross-border money laundering network hidden behind Virtual Money trading, involving an amount as high as 170 million yuan. This carefully designed criminal chain used the buying and selling of Digital Money as a cover, and in reality, it provided money transfer services for illegal activities abroad.

Police investigations show that the criminal group has been operating since July last year, disguised as "blockchain OTC merchants", and has established a complex four-level Money Laundering channel. They published acquisition advertisements for USDT at prices above the market rate through encrypted communication software, attracting a large number of cardholders to participate. In just six months, their bank flow reached an astonishing 170 million yuan, with business operations spanning more than 20 provinces and cities across the country.

The criminal's methods are very sophisticated, frequently changing ATMs to withdraw cash between 2 AM and 5 AM to evade supervision. The entire Money Laundering process involves multiple steps: from the illegal funds entering the domestic "shell accounts" from abroad, splitting and transferring through the "money runner team", then cashing out by the "withdrawal staff", and finally deposited into underground banks by the "cash transporter", ultimately transferring the funds out of the country in the form of USDT.

Currently, the police have arrested 15 criminal suspects and confiscated a large number of tools used in the crime, including 52 bank cards, 15 mobile phones, 1 tablet computer, and 3 cash counting machines. At the same time, the police also discovered sticky notes with important information written on them, such as "U shield password" and "online banking limit".

This case reveals the potential risks of virtual money transactions being used as a tool for Money Laundering, and also reflects the complexity of cross-border financial crimes. The police stated that they will continue to investigate deeply in order to thoroughly dismantle this black and gray industrial chain. This incident also reminds the public to be vigilant when participating in virtual money transactions to avoid inadvertently getting involved in illegal financial activities.