A Chinese government official has been given a life sentence for accepting bribes and abusing his power to support a crypto-mining enterprise worth GBP 260 million.

The official, Xiao Yi – a former member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group and vice chairman – was also found guilty of corruption.

The Hangzhou City Intermediate People’s Court issued the verdict during a hearing on 22nd August.

The corruption charges are linked to non-crypto activities involving bribery from 2008 to 2021. During that period, Xiao accepted about CNY 125 million (GBP 13 million) for personal favours.

Xiao was also found guilty of providing fiscal, capital and electricity-related support to a local cryptocurrency mining business that posed as a big data and cloud computing company.

He ordered falsified documents to hide the heavy power usage at the firm, known as Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, which came as a result of them operating a total of 160,000 crypto-mining machines.

From 2017 to 2020, the electricity used by Jiumu Group accounted for 10 per cent of the south-eastern city of Fuzhou’s total electricity consumption.

The court referred to Xiao’s actions as “an extremely serious case with extremely bad effects” which led to heavy losses of public property.

He admitted guilt and was forced to return the embezzled funds, and surrendered all bribes and their profits. His personal property was also seized.

At 61 years old, Xiao is the oldest Chinese official to have been punished for supporting cryptocurrency mining.

The country strictly prohibits cryptocurrency transactions, exchange operations, and converting fiat to crypto, though ownership is not outright banned.