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[Supreme People's Procuratorate discloses a case involving 1200000 yuan in U-coin fraud: Virtual currency transactions fall outside the scope of contract fraud regulation]

According to the Supreme People's Procuratorate's official account, a U-coin fraud case was recently heard in Xuzhou, Jiangsu. Wang and others defrauded victim Xiao of 1200000 yuan by claiming to purchase U-coins. The case was initially transferred for review and prosecution on suspicion of the crime of snatching, but the procuratorial authorities determined that Wang and others had meticulously set up a scheme and, using a sham transaction as bait, had in substance fraudulently obtained the victim's U-coins, thereby allegedly committing the crime of fraud, and thus initiated a public prosecution before the court. At trial, defense counsel argued that the defendants had committed contract fraud. Whether the case was classified as fraud or contract fraud would result in a significant difference in sentencing. The prosecutor stated that the Criminal Law's provisions on contract fraud are intended to safeguard market order, and that the content of a contract must reflect the attributes of the socialist market economy; virtual currency transactions are illegal financial activities expressly prohibited by the state and fall outside the scope of contract fraud regulation.