Shenzhen Employee Gets Prison Time for Bitcoin-Backed Extortion

An employee at a Shenzhen technology company has been sentenced to three years and three months in prison for stealing proprietary R&D data and attempting to extort his employer. The employee, identified only as Jia, demanded 0.88 BTC, an additional 0.8 BTC, and 90,000 USDT from his employer.

The ransom was valued at over 630,000 RMB (approximately $87,000 to $88,000). Jia's plan backfired when the company refused to pay and immediately reported the incident to the police.

Jia had accumulated significant debts from online lending platforms and decided to monetize his employer's intellectual property. He was subsequently arrested, charged, and convicted of extortion.

The court recognized both Bitcoin and USDT as virtual assets possessing property value, which is crucial in a country where cryptocurrency trading has been effectively banned since 2021.