A network engineer was accused of stealing funds from a gambling website. Authorities in two locations filed cases and seized 183 Bitcoins.

On January 20, Shenzhen IT man Li Dong (alias) was targeted by police in Hunan and Hubei provinces. A large amount of Bitcoin was found in his virtual currency wallet. Public security authorities in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan, and Changge City, Henan, both filed investigations against Li Dong, with the suspected crime being “running a casino.” Zhangjiajie police seized over 100 Bitcoin from Li Dong’s account, worth more than 40 million RMB; Henan police seized 80 Bitcoin, with a market value exceeding 40 million RMB. Later, Li Dong was not identified as “running a casino,” and he was prosecuted by the Changge City Procuratorate in Henan for suspected theft and infringement of citizens’ personal information. In January 2026, the case was publicly tried in Changge City Court. After the adjournment, the court stated it would hold another session at a later date. “Post-80s” Li Dong is a network information security engineer, with a university major in information security. He has worked in network security technology at several well-known internet companies and later settled in Shenzhen, where he started an internet business in recent years. According to his family, around 2016, Li Dong began trading stocks and cryptocurrencies, acquiring some Bitcoin. However, later police investigations believed that the source of his Bitcoin was from other “channels.” In September 2024, the Public Security Bureau of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan, summoned Li Dong on suspicion of “running a casino.” It turned out that in May of that year, Zhangjiajie police filed a case based on “anonymous reports” to investigate an online gambling case, and Li Dong was listed as a suspect. Zhangjiajie police seized 103 Bitcoin from Li Dong’s digital wallet, worth over 49.61 million RMB. Soon after, Li Dong was released on bail pending trial. The seizure and bail documents changed the suspected crime from “running a casino” to “illegally obtaining computer information system data.” In July 2025, the Changge City Procuratorate prosecuted Li Dong for suspected theft and infringement of citizens’ personal information. On January 5, 2026, the case was publicly tried in Changge City Court. According to the prosecution, in 2020, Li Dong exploited a program vulnerability in the servers of the overseas online gambling website “Kaiyun Sports” to steal personal information of over 1.84 million Chinese citizens, including people from Xuchang and Changge. Besides the above charges of infringing citizens’ personal information, the prosecution also believed that Li Dong stole funds from the gambling website, constituting theft. (The Paper)