A court found the failed scheme used stolen core R&D files, fake overseas hacker emails and ransom demands of 0.88 Bitcoin, 0.8 Bitcoin and 90,000 USDT.
A company employee in Shenzhen's Pingshan District was sentenced to three years and three months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan after stealing core research and development materials, copying files to a personal phone and posing as an overseas hacker in an attempted extortion scheme. The employee, surnamed Jia, who had online loan debts, sent ransom emails demanding 0.88 Bitcoin, 0.8 Bitcoin and 90,000 USDT and threatened to leak the data, but the company refused to pay and reported the case to police. Prosecutors said Bitcoin and Tether, while not legal tender, are virtual assets with property value, and said the cryptocurrencies involved in the case were worth more than 630,000 yuan, which could be used in determining the amount tied to the crime.