Yao Qian, the former architect of China’s digital yuan, accepted crypto bribes worth over $8 million while holding senior regulatory positions, Chinese state media revealed this week.
The case exposes how corrupt officials exploited the same blockchain technology Yao helped develop to conceal illicit transactions through hardware wallets and anonymous transfers.
The former director of the Digital Currency Research Institute at the People’s Bank of China used multiple shell accounts and blockchain addresses to hide bribes totaling at least 22 million yuan ($3.1 million) in fiat currency alongside substantial crypto holdings.
State broadcaster CCTV aired details of Yao’s corruption scheme on January 14 in a documentary titled “Technology Empowering Anti-Corruption,” showing how investigators traced 2,000 Ethereum (valued at 60 million yuan at peak prices) from a businessman to Yao’s personal wallet in 2018.
“These three seemingly insignificant little wallets stored tens of millions of yuan,” said Zou Rong, a staff member with the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection stationed at the China Securities Regulatory Commission. While Yao believed virtual currencies offered anonymity, blockchain’s transparency enabled investigators to reconstruct complete transaction histories, linking bribes directly to his wallets.
Investigators discovered three hardware wallets in Yao’s office drawer, each resembling ordinary USB devices but containing millions of yuan in cryptocurrency.
Authorities penetrated layers of shell accounts controlled by relatives and intermediaries, establishing clear evidence that businessman Wang transferred 12 million yuan through an information services company in exchange for regulatory favors. “He believed that after setting up multiple layers, the system would be more isolated,” said Shi Changping of Shanwei City’s Discipline Inspection Commission, adding that multiple parties actually strengthened the evidence chain.
The investigation revealed that Yao purchased a Beijing villa worth over 20 million yuan using funds traced to crypto exchanges, including a single 10 million yuan payment converted from digital assets.
