anti-graft Photo: VCG

Yao Qian, former director of the Department of Technology Supervision and former head of the IT Service Center at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), has been discovered to have accepted cryptocurrency bribes, an official statement showed on Wednesday.

Yao has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and dismissed from public office due to serious violations of law, including using virtual currencies in power-for-money exchanges, and abuse of policy suggestion, formulation, enforcement power and other regulatory powers, according to the statement released by the National Supervisory Commission of China, also known as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China's top anti-corruption watchdog.

Yao accepted expensive items such as Moutai liquor and participated banquets in violation of regulations, said the statement. Yao also illegally borrowed large sums of money from regulated entities and invested in enterprises in violation of the law.

He illegally accepted large amount of property, it said.

The CCDI has confiscated the proceeds from Yao's violations of discipline and law. A local inspection unit in Shanwei, South China's Guangdong Province decided to transfer Yao's case to prosecutorial authorities for legal review and prosecution, along with the involved assets.

Yao was put under investigation on April 26, for "serious violation of disciplines and laws," as announced by the CCDI.

According to public information, Yao has worked in the financial regulatory system, mainly at China's central bank and the CSRC, and his experience was related to science and technology supervision.

Yao became the first director of the digital currency research institute within the People's Bank of China, the central bank, in 2017.

Global Times