Which department is responsible for handling criminal cases involving virtual currency, the Economic Investigation Department, the Criminal Investigation Department, or the Internet Police?

Which department is responsible for handling criminal cases involving virtual currency the Economic Investigation Department, the Criminal Investigation Department, or the Internet Police?

For many people, the internal organizational structure of the public security organs seems far removed from their own lives; in reality, apart from personnel working within the public security organs, other judicial workers, including lawyers, prosecutors, judges, who frequently deal with public security, may not necessarily have a thorough understanding of the internal organizational structure of the public security system. As a lawyer providing legal services in the field of blockchain and web3, Lawyer Liu frequently encounters police officers from different departments such as economic investigation, criminal investigation, and even the internet police when handling related cases. Today, let’s talk about the specific responsibilities of these departments and how the police internally manage cases involving blockchain technology.

Economic Investigation – The White-Collar Police

The economic investigation department, also known as economic crime investigation, originated from criminal investigation. The Ministry of Public Security established this department in October 1998. The reason was that since the 1990s, China’s market economy has been continuously active, with rapid development in new fields such as finance, insurance, and securities. At the same time, new types of crimes emerged in these fields, resulting in a high incidence of economic crimes. The traditional criminal investigation methods employed by the public security organs were not effective in combating economic crimes. As a result, the economic investigation department of the public security organs was established.

In different regions of China, the internal organizational structure of the economic investigation departments generally consists of three levels: provincial-level departments are called Economic Investigation Headquarters/Bureaus, prefecture-level city departments are called Economic Investigation Detachments, and county-level departments are called Economic Investigation Brigades.

• Unibot Hack: When Memecoins Become “Meme-steal”-coins!
• What is missing in the whole chain game?
• Reaping the Benefits Starknet Foundation Awards Early Contributors with STRK Tokens, Unlocking Trading Opportunities!

It seems that the economic investigation departments primarily deal with crimes in the economic field involving high intelligence, large amounts of money, and advanced technology. Therefore, some people refer to the economic investigation department as the “white-collar police” of the public security organs – with a hint of glamour and beauty, after all, they are far away from the dust and chaos of homicide scenes. However, the white-collar police also have their own difficulties – most cases are complex, evidence collection is cumbersome, and high standards are required for case handling, leading to frequent business trips, and so on.

So, what types of criminal cases are under the jurisdiction of the economic investigation departments?

According to the classification in the “Notice on the Division of Jurisdiction of Criminal Cases by the Ministry of Public Security” released on September 1, 2020, the economic investigation departments have jurisdiction over 77 types of crimes, mainly focused on crimes that undermine company and enterprise management order, crimes that disrupt financial management order, financial fraud crimes, crimes that harm tax collection and management, as well as some offenses related to disturbing market order.

According to the “Provisions on the Standard for Filing and Prosecuting Criminal Cases by Public Security Organs” jointly issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security on April 6, 2022, public security organs have jurisdiction over a total of 78 criminal charges related to economic crimes.

For most people, whether the economic investigation departments have jurisdiction over 77 or 78 criminal charges, or even more, is not important. What matters is that everyone needs to know that the common and high-incidence criminal charges in the cryptocurrency industry fall under the jurisdiction of the economic investigation departments. Such charges include embezzlement, contract fraud, organizing and leading pyramid schemes, illegal absorption of public deposits, fundraising fraud, and so on.

Criminal Investigation – The Oldest in History

Criminal investigation, as the name suggests, refers to the criminal investigation department, which is the oldest department in the public security system (the other one being the public security management department). The criminal investigation department is responsible for investigating the most diverse range of cases compared to other departments in the public security system, with at least 119 types of crimes. Common crimes such as homicide, arson, explosion, robbery, and rape are all investigated by the criminal investigation department. It is also the main force in investigating cases within the public security system. At the provincial level and below, the criminal investigation department is structured in a similar way to the economic investigation department, with a hierarchy of a criminal investigation (police) headquarters, regional branches, and local branches.

Although the criminal investigation department is responsible for solving the majority of criminal cases, in reality, many simple criminal cases are directly handled and investigated by local police stations. Only complex criminal cases that require specialized investigative methods are handled directly by the criminal investigation department. According to the regulations issued by the Ministry of Public Security on the “Opinions on Establishing the Working Mechanism of Local Police Stations and Criminal Investigation Teams for Handling Criminal Cases,” intentional homicide, cases causing serious injuries or deaths, rape, robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking, arson, explosion, cases involving hazardous substances, as well as burglary, car theft, and organized theft cannot be handled by local police stations and should be managed by the criminal investigation department or other competent authorities (for example, drug trafficking cases are under the jurisdiction of the narcotics control bureau).

In the field of blockchain, common criminal charges investigated by the criminal investigation department include fraud (contract fraud investigation is handled by the economic investigation department) and theft. Typical scenarios are scams involving the buying and selling of virtual currencies, theft of virtual currencies from others, or the issuance of “Dogecoin” to defraud users, and so on.

Net Police – “The Coding Cops”

Compared to criminal investigation and economic investigation, the net police is a slightly more mysterious department with seemingly higher technological content. Some people jokingly refer to the net police as “the coding cops” in the world of law enforcement. The net police is subordinated to the Public Security Network Security Department (National Cybersecurity Bureau). Broadly speaking, the responsibilities of the net police include “supervising and managing the security of computer information systems.” Specifically, the net police’s duties include criminal investigation, information collection, security prevention, administrative management, network security management, monitoring public sentiments on the internet, and so on. The commonly seen website and app registration procedures are handled by the net police department.

The net police are responsible for investigating 11 types of criminal cases. In addition to traditional computer crimes (as stipulated in Articles 285-286 of the Criminal Law), the crimes most closely associated with the field of virtual currencies are aiding and abetting cybercrime (helping crime through virtual means) and infringement of citizens’ personal information.

It is worth mentioning that the division of labor within the public security department does not strictly follow legal jurisdiction in the traditional sense. In other words, their division of labor is limited to within the public security agency. The public security agency has the full authority to adjust internal jurisdiction based on the specific needs of each case, such as temporarily reallocating resources when manpower is insufficient. For example, cases that fall under the jurisdiction of the economic investigation department may be assigned to the criminal investigation or public security departments, and the economic investigation department may also handle cases from other departments.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!