China Central Television’s latest anti-corruption documentary reveals that former senior official of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Yao, has long used cryptocurrencies to conduct power and money transactions. From greeting ICOs to receive ETH, to hiding assets in hardware wallets, and laundering money through fake accounts to purchase houses, the complete chain of virtual asset corruption is exposed for the first time.
(Previous background: China’s current crypto situation — peripherals of the crypto world, Solana phones, lottery mining machines, all openly sold on Xianyu)
(Additional background: Prince Group founder Chen Zhi has been detained; after embezzling 127,000 BTC, he will be extradited to China for trial)

Table of Contents

• ICO “Greeting” for ETH Returns
• Hiding Virtual Assets in Hardware Wallets
• Layered Money Laundering through Fake Accounts, Funds Ultimately Flowing to Beijing Villa
• Receiving Bribes through Subordinates and Exchanging for ETH
• Case Timeline

Tonight (14th), China Central Television aired the fourth episode of its anti-corruption series “One Step Never Stops, Half Step No Retreat” titled “Technology Empowers Anti-Corruption,” revealing that Yao, former Director of the Technology Supervision Department and former Director of the Information Center of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, has long exploited his position to conduct power and money transactions using cryptocurrencies, involving amounts totaling hundreds of millions of RMB, making it one of the most representative cases of “virtual currency-based corruption” in recent years.

ICO “Greeting” for ETH Returns

The documentary discloses that as early as 2018, Yao was involved in cryptocurrency-related power and money transactions. At that time, he was approached by a businessman named Zhang, who was conducting an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), to “give a heads-up” to a certain virtual currency trading platform, helping the project to be listed smoothly and gain support.

The ICO project ultimately raised about 20,000 ETH. In return, Zhang transferred 2,000 ETH to Yao, which, based on the market value at the time, amounted to several tens of millions of RMB. This transaction was identified by investigators as key evidence of Yao “using his regulatory authority to accept cryptocurrency bribes.”

Hiding Virtual Assets in Hardware Wallets

During the investigation, the team directly found multiple hardware wallets in Yao’s office drawers. These devices look similar to USB drives or remote controls and are often used for offline storage of cryptocurrencies, offering high concealment.

Forensic verification confirmed that these hardware wallets stored the cryptocurrencies illegally received by Yao over the years.

Layered Money Laundering through Fake Accounts, Funds Ultimately Flowing to Beijing Villa

Although Yao’s personal bank accounts appeared normal, disciplinary and supervisory authorities, through big data cross-matching, discovered multiple accounts opened in his name but controlled by Yao, typical “mule accounts.”

One such account with 10 million RMB, after about four layers of transfer, traced back to a cryptocurrency trader. The funds were then used to pay part of the purchase price for a villa in Beijing worth over 20 million RMB, registered under a relative’s name but actually owned by Yao.

Additionally, two other transactions totaling about 12 million RMB flowed through the same channels to pay the remaining balance of the villa.

Receiving Bribes through Subordinates and Exchanging for ETH

The documentary also reveals that Yao, through subordinate Jiang Guoqing, received benefits totaling 12 million RMB from businessman Wang, and exchanged part of the funds for 370 ETH, further expanding his crypto holdings.

In the program, Yao appeared on camera to confess: “I know this is sneaky behavior. How could I do it? It’s just that I thought it was hard to find evidence before.”

Case Timeline

• April 26, 2024: Yao announced to be under review and investigation
• November 2024: Dismissed from party and government positions, with explicit mention of using virtual currency for power and money transactions
• 2025: Ongoing evidence collection, including electronic data and virtual asset valuation
• January 14, 2026: CCTV documentary reveals more details