Not long ago, the Shanghai police detected a new type of money laundering case, in a popular online live broadcast room, a "big brother" known as "Shenhao" recharged tens of millions of yuan to reward the anchor, and other fans in the live broadcast room did not know that the 10 million reward was actually related to the money laundering case.
"Big Brother on the List" appeared in the live broadcast room
In September 2018, a well-known online live broadcast platform held a fan carnival event, and the man who stood on the stage and sang affectionately was the original singer of this song, Wang, who was born in 1984, not only likes to sing, but also participated in many movies and TV series. But those who are familiar with him know that he is also a well-known network anchor. Relying on his ability to sing and chat, Wang not only attracted countless fans, but also relied on the rewards of fans to successfully be selected as a gold medal artist on the live broadcast platform.
Among Wang's many fans, there is a fan with the screen name "Yiling Yanyu Ren Pingsheng" who is the most famous, because during Wang's live broadcast, as long as this person appears, all kinds of heavyweight gifts will fly all over the screen. These countless virtual gifts bloomed in the live broadcast room with colorful special effects, but many people also know that behind the colorful screen are the result of real money and silver illusion.
In a live broadcast in January 2020, because of the fan's heavy reward, the atmosphere in the live broadcast room was directly pushed to a climax, and many people also followed the reward under the infection of this atmosphere, which also made fans change from watching the anchor to watching the "big brother".
Fans in the live broadcast room were extremely curious about the identity of this person, until one night in April 2020, this "mysterious person" hidden behind the anchor Wang suddenly appeared in the live broadcast room. Wang's fans saw the true face of this "mysterious man" for the first time. Although he did not appear in the live broadcast room for a long time, someone soon recognized that this "mysterious person" with a generous shot was Yu Mou, the owner of a company in Shanghai.
A few months later, Yu posted a video on the company's social platforms. In the video, Yu said that due to the external environment, many of his company's project funds were facing the situation that they could not be returned, and he decided to entrust other senior executives of the company to temporarily start emergency measures.
The "big brother on the list" absconded abroad
A number of reports have revealed the secrets behind them
What many people don't know is that when Yu released this video, he had actually absconded abroad. A reward is tens of millions of yuan, how can there be a problem with the company's capital chain? And what does his company do?
Soon, the Shanghai police received some police calls from investors claiming to be Yu from a company, and these calls completely tore apart the secret behind Yu's tens of millions of rewards.
On August 18, 2020, the Shanghai police received reports from the public that they could not cash out the wealth management products purchased by an investment company in Shanghai after they expired. After receiving the police, the police rushed to the scene as soon as possible to deal with it.
Huang Yi, a police officer from the First Brigade of the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: We found that the content of the report had some similarities with some fund-raising criminal cases that we had handled in the past, and we immediately notified the Economic Investigation Detachment to intervene in screening and collecting evidence.
Wang Zhiyin, a police officer from the First Brigade of the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: First of all, we immediately inquired about the high-level and middle-level employees who remained in Shanghai and asked about the company's basic operation model. At the same time, at that time, there were also senior executives from local branches who came to inquire about the situation, and we conducted interviews with the executives of the branches to understand the form of their fundraising, which was actually illegal fundraising under the cloak of legality.
After investigation, since December 2017, without the approval of the relevant state departments, Yu's company has set up offline stores in more than 150 cities in 18 provinces across the country in the name of the so-called financial leasing income transfer plan for special vehicles and new energy vehicles, and illegally raised funds from unspecified members of the public.
Huang Yi, a police officer from the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: After a preliminary review of the contract, we all promised to guarantee the principal and interest in a relatively simple and crude way, and no matter any risk or force majeure, there will be a high return on interest every year. This is contrary to the ordinary business or business dealings, without considering any unexpected risks, labor, or any other costs.
Wang Zhiyin, a large group of policemen of the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Pudong Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: His funds are directly circulated in the body, and the company is actually sucking up the people's funds under the guise of vehicle financial leasing, and the funds are not really used in the operation of these vehicles, in fact, they are wantonly squandered by the actual controller of the company.
Illegally raised more than 1.2 billion yuan
Most of the stolen money goes to personal accounts
The police sorted out the flow of funds of a certain company and found that the stolen money obtained by the company involved in illegal fund-raising was as high as more than 1.2 billion yuan, part of which was used for the daily operation of the company, and a considerable part of the money entered the personal account of the main culprit Yu, and the police also focused on this part of the money.
Gan Yiming, a police officer from the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: We found that in addition to his personal squandering, such as buying jewelry and luxury cars, a large part of it was recharged to a certain online live broadcast platform.
Yuan Wei, Captain of the Three Brigades of the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: The amount of money he rewarded was tens of millions of yuan, and we thought this behavior was very suspicious at the time, so we will further track down and find out whether he is suspected of laundering or transferring the stolen money.
The police retrieved Yu's personal account on the live broadcast platform, and found from his past tipping records that from January 2018 to June 2020, Yu successively rewarded nearly 100 anchors on the platform, among them, Wang, Li, Jia, and Fang, the four anchors were his key targets.
So, why are only these four anchors favored by Yu Mou, so he does not hesitate to spend a lot of money to reward? This also attracted the attention of the police.
Gan Yiming, a police officer from the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: We retrieved all the funds from the personal accounts of several anchors who received huge rewards, and then through the layers of funds, we found that after receiving a huge amount of rewards from the main perpetrators of fund-raising fraud, the anchors involved in the case would withdraw the funds from the main fund-raising fraud and transfer the funds to the personal accounts of the main perpetrators of the fund-raising fraud and the accounts of related parties.
Based on this, the police believe that these anchors are indeed suspected of helping the master commit money laundering. But do they know where the money comes from?
In the subsequent investigation, the police found that these anchors had a very close relationship with the main culprit Yu in private, not only traveling together, but also frequently going in and out of a certain company. The interaction between these anchors and Yu is far more than that, and during the investigation, the police also found that Wang, one of the four anchors, also said during the live broadcast that he held the employee number of a certain company.
Not only that, but the anchor surnamed Wang also openly proposed in the live broadcast room that he could help the person who gave the reward to launder money.
In the investigation of the four anchors, the police also found that some criminal suspects in the black and gray industry will recharge the criminal proceeds into the accounts of the online live broadcast platform, and then sell them to some reward coin intermediaries at a 6% or 7% discount, and these intermediaries buy them at a low price, and then sell them to some anchors' teams or fans at a 7% to 8% discount to earn the difference.
Gan Yiming, a police officer of the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: In the process of tracking the anchor's personal fund account, we also further investigated and found that there were also suspects of telecommunications fraud and online gambling, and they got acquainted with Fan Mou, who was an employee of Li's live broadcast studio at the time. On the one hand, Fan is for personal profit, and on the other hand, it is to help Li broadcast better, get platform rewards, and reward some anchors in his studio.
After obtaining conclusive evidence, the Shanghai police closed the net on the relevant persons involved in the case. In the process of arresting the four anchors, because one of the anchors was still live broadcast when he was arrested, the police action was quickly discovered by the viewers and revealed to another person involved in the case, Li, who was live broadcasting. But what Li wouldn't have thought was that the reminders of the spectators would not help him, because the police in charge of arresting him were also paying attention to his live broadcast in order to grasp his real-time movements.
So far, the police have arrested a total of 44 people involved in the case, of which 40 defendants suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits have been sentenced, and the arrest of the main culprit Yu is also ongoing.
Four online anchors were prosecuted on suspicion of money laundering
In November 2023, the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate approved the arrest of Li, Wang, Fang, and Jia on suspicion of money laundering. The procuratorate believes that from January 2018 to July 2020, Li and four other anchors clearly knew that the funds recharged by Yu X to the live broadcast platform for tips or bank transfers to his personal bank account were the proceeds of illegal fundraising by the operating company, but still accepted Yu X as a tip, and returned funds to Yu X through transfers and other forms, and their actions have constituted the crime of money laundering.
In the later review, the prosecutor found that the reason why these four anchors became the targets of Yu's key rewards was largely because they were "sensible" and withstood the "test" given to them by Yu. Because, at the beginning of choosing a tipping target, a small tip will be made first, and then a large tip will be made from time to time to attract the attention of anchors and establish contact.
In the daily live broadcast, Yu will also communicate with several anchors, plan scripts, and deliberately create topics and heat in order to maximize benefits.
With the heavy blessing of Yu, the "big brother on the list", several anchors not only earned enough fame, but also obtained rich benefits. And they also returned the money that was given to them in proportion to the money they were given. One in and one out, the illegal gains of a certain will be laundered.
"Cash Bouquet" "Cash Cake" ......
Be wary of these methods of money laundering
According to the confessions of several anchors involved in the case, in addition to laundering money through the live broadcast room, they will also take the initiative to transfer money to Yu during the New Year's holidays, ostensibly to thank Yu for his generous reward, but the real purpose is money laundering.
In addition to staging the style of money laundering of sending red envelopes to show loyalty, after getting acquainted with Yu, the anchors will frequently receive requests from Yu to borrow money from them. However, the purpose of borrowing money is fake, and its purpose is to launder money.
On February 28, 2024, the case of Li, Wang and others suspected of money laundering was tried in the first instance of the Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Court, and the court will announce the verdict at a later date.
In addition to using online live broadcast rooms to launder money, the public security organs also found that some criminals would also launder money in the name of ordering "cash bouquets" and "cash cakes" to buy gold jewelry, branded mobile phones, and real estate.
Yuan Wei, Captain of the Third Brigade of the Economic Crime Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: These methods of money laundering are becoming more and more diverse, and for our public security organs, in cracking down on this new type of money laundering criminal activities, the public security organs are also constantly improving their investigation and crackdown capabilities. Only by improving our ability to detect and crack down on money laundering will we be able to cope with the ever-changing methods of money laundering and crack down on all kinds of new types of illegal and criminal acts.