Taiwan’s high court has convicted eight individuals of espionage for China, revealing that cryptocurrency was used to facilitate payments in one of the most significant spying cases in recent years. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, Chinese intelligence utilized cryptocurrency to pay Taiwanese military personnel involved in this major espionage case.

The high court convicted eight people, including active-duty and retired military officers, for collecting state secrets on behalf of China. This case is described as one of the largest espionage cases in recent years. The court handed down sentences ranging from one-and-a-half years to 13 years in prison. The Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau disclosed that these individuals were recruited by the Chinese Communist Party to gather military intelligence, with virtual currency being used to facilitate payments. Despite the ban on cryptocurrency trading in China, this case highlights the intelligence agencies’ continued use of digital assets for covert operations.

China banned all crypto transactions in 2021, citing concerns over financial stability and crime prevention. However, the use of cryptocurrencies in this espionage case indicates that Chinese intelligence operatives continue to leverage the anonymity and ease of cross-border transactions offered by digital assets.

Earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that Chinese intelligence officers paid bribes in Bitcoin to a U.S. government employee to steal documents related to the prosecution of a China-based telecommunications company. In that case, Chinese agents used Bitcoin, and blockchain analytics showed that the spies utilized privacy-enhancing tools like Wasabi Wallet to obscure their transaction trail.

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