DOJ Charges Detail Bitcoin Bribes And Crypto Paid For ‘Malware As A Service'

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing the unsealing of a criminal complaint in which intelligence officers from the People's Republic of China ("PRC") were charged with attempting to obstruct a criminal prosecution in the Eastern District of New York. According to the press release, Guochun He and Zheng Wang are alleged to have orchestrated a scheme to steal files and information from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York that are related to an ongoing federal criminal investigation and prosecution of a PRC-based global telecommunications company. In furtherance of this scheme, Guochun He and Zheng Wang, among other things, allegedly paid approximately $61,000 in bitcoin as a bribe to a U.S. government employee who worked as a double agent for the FBI and the PRC.