Why turn around and put it in the public restroom?, The man bought a 7kg gold phone at a Shanghai Gold Store within a week | Gold | Shanghai
Last August, several gold shops in Shanghai received a mysterious customer who was generous and purchased a large number of gold bars in one go, even exceeding the limit of a single POS machine. However, after leaving the store, he went straight to the public restroom and hid the newly purchased gold bar inside. Recently, the People's Procuratorate of Putuo District, Shanghai revealed that behind the abnormal behavior is actually a criminal act. After being prosecuted by the court, the defendant Zhan, Zhu, and six others were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 3 years and 10 months to 2 years, and fined between 50000 and 10000 yuan for concealing and concealing the crime.
Last summer, Zhu, who was unemployed and at home, called his former contractor and asked if he had any work to do recently. The other party said that the construction site has been suspended recently, but they can introduce Zhu to help others collect gold. Someone will teach them how to do it specifically. I heard that the remuneration was quite generous, so Zhu agreed without hesitation and purchased a plane ticket to fly to Shanghai.
The next day, Zhu received a call asking him to go to the nearby garden to pick up his work phone. As soon as he stepped into the garden, someone took the initiative to greet him and gave him a mobile phone to continue waiting for the call. After a while, the phone rang and Zhu received the latest instruction: go to the nearby public restroom to get the bank card placed in a plastic bag.
Chat records between Zhu and the behind the scenes commander provided by the Putuo Prosecutor's Office
Next, Zhu followed the instructions and headed straight to a gold shop. After inquiring about the price of gold and processing fees for the day, he sat on a stool and messaged the phone. After being informed by the other party about how much gold to buy, which card to use, how much money to swipe, and how much password to use, Zhu immediately purchased 2 kilograms of gold bars and requested the store clerk to prepare an additional 2 kilograms. Subsequently, Zhu went to another location and processed multiple bank cards, returning to the gold shop. Because the POS machines in the store have a limit, in order to sell these 4 kilograms of gold bars, the staff used multiple POS machines, which also left a deep impression on this generous customer and this large order.
In fact, Zhu is just a runner. As soon as he sent a message informing him that he had purchased the gold as required, the phone rang again, demanding that he return the gold, phone, and bank card to the nearby public restroom and exchange them for a new work phone. The package would be received by someone. In just one week, Zhu swiped 9 bank cards and spent 2.3 million yuan to purchase approximately 7 kilograms of gold. Whenever he put away the gold bars, a man wearing a mask and a duckbill cap would appear by his side, quickly removing the garbage bag containing the gold bars while no one was paying attention, and they would eventually meet at a certain hotel.
This is a pickup team led by Zhan, with four assistants including Luo and Yu. After arriving at the case, Zhan and others made a truthful statement. In August 2022, a friend of Zhan contacted him through an overseas chat app, hoping that he could find someone to help pick up the goods in Shanghai. The two were once prison friends who had known each other for many years, but they were usually referred to by nicknames and did not know each other's real names. However, this friend often took care of Zhan and his family. Zhan was very loyal to his friends and happened to be coming to Shanghai to do a foreign wine business. There were also people around him, so without much consideration, he agreed. The other party formed a chat group through overseas chat software, and Zhan prepared multiple unverified work phones to hand over to team members. He also pulled Luo, Yu, and others into the group. As long as Zhu bought gold, the other party would send instructions in the group, and Luo and others would follow the instructions to pick up the goods separately.
Photo provided by Putuo Prosecutor's Office for identifying public toilets with gold bars hidden
In addition to picking up the goods, the other party also asked Zhan to help sell the gold, promising to distribute 1.5% of the payment, but can only conduct transactions in virtual currency. Zhan knows that this person who frequently appears in Myanmar and other places will engage in some illegal activities. Buying and selling gold through such means is definitely not a normal investment behavior. The fact is indeed true, the money in these bank cards is all funds defrauded through telecommunications fraud. But Zhan had a slight sense of luck and felt that he had not directly participated in the process of purchasing gold or handing it over. Coupled with factors such as interests and friendship, he decided to help handle this batch of gold. At the end of August, Mr. Zhan went to Taizhou to meet with the buyer, and the buyer paid a total of over 380000 yuan in virtual currency. The transaction price was lower than the international gold price on that day. After receiving the payment, Zhan transferred most of the virtual currency to the wallet account provided by his friend, while leaving a portion as team compensation.
After examination, the prosecutor found that Zhan, Zhu and others knowingly transferred the proceeds of crime, and the circumstances were serious. Their actions had violated relevant laws, so they filed a public prosecution in accordance with the law.
