On October 2, Yunnan Legal Daily reported that in February 2023, seven defendants discussed building a network platform for investing in virtual currencies. After reaching an agreement, they contacted a Sichuan company, and technical personnel developed the "3M platform" to issue tokens "Mavro Coins", luring investors to join the project by offering high profits from investing in virtual currencies. After the platform was built and operated, the seven defendants actively promoted the high profits of the investment platform, and went offline to promote and develop downlines, and their downlines developed other downlines.
It was identified that there were 375 users with more than 3 downline levels (including 3 levels) and more than 30 downline levels (including 30). The 7 defendants made profits ranging from 4,300 yuan to 20,000 yuan. After trial, the Xichou County People's Court held that the 7 defendants used the "3M platform" to issue virtual currency, lured investors to join the platform by offering high profits by investing in virtual currency, and formed levels in a certain order, using the number of people developed as a reward for profit. Their actions constituted the crime of organizing and leading pyramid selling activities. According to the defendants' roles in the crime, development levels, confessions, and the return of stolen money, they were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of two years and six months to one year and six months, suspended sentences, and fines.
