A single alphanumeric code, copied by mistake into a police report, was enough to ruin the lives of a Chinese couple living in l’Eliana ( ... Valencia).
After spending five months in prison accused of moving 21 million dollars for an international criminal network, their eight-year-old son was placed in a care home and the couple found themselves facing severe financial hardship, with more than 750,000 euros’ worth of assets frozen - all because of a ghost account that never belonged to them.
A data entry mistake - which the police themselves acknowledge in writing as a "clerical error" - has caused nearly two years of legal ordeal that remains unresolved to this day.
The nightmare began on the morning of 14 January 2025. A police operation involving a helicopter, drones, officers from the Special Operations Group (GEO), and Europol raided the family home in l’Eliana as part of 'Operation Karasu', a large-scale investigation led by a judge in Almería against an international network involved in clandestine banking and money laundering using the hawala method.
After pointing their guns at the couple in their bedroom and searching the property, police arrested them. The most traumatic consequence was not financial, but family-related: their youngest son, aged eight, was placed in a care facility run by the Valencian Regional Government until Social Services authorised his maternal grandmother to take custody. The day after the raid, on 15 January, the judge ordered both spouses to be remanded in custody.
The prosecution’s case rested on a digital deduction. In November 2024, the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) linked Shaoyuan Y. to an address on the TRON cryptocurrency network through which $21,514,321 in USDT had passed, classifying it as a "bridge account" for the criminal network. Her husband was implicated simply because they held joint ownership of assets.
"On that sole basis, the raid on their home, pre-trial detention, and the seizure of their assets were authorised, without the case file containing any evidence of surveillance, telephone tapping, or cash handovers," stated defence lawyer Juan Antonio Signes. A month after their imprisonment, the police report continued to repeat the same fictitious ownership claim.
After paying bail of 60,000 euros in June 2025, the couple realised that the digital wallet had never been deactivated: it had carried out 38 transfers totalling over $691,000 while they were being held incommunicado at Picassent prison. Furthermore, an expert report by Bitrace (a data analytics firm) and official certification from the wallet provider imToken confirmed that it was an external personal account with no identity details attached.
In light of this evidence, UDEF admitted in December 2025 to an "unintentional error in transliteration and data entry," acknowledging that Shaoyuan was not the account holder, but merely the sender of a single one-off transaction. In March 2026, investigators downgraded the issue to the "correction of a clerical error," a classification adopted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in July.
"We are not talking about a figure that has been copied incorrectly or a minor detail. They identified the person who was allegedly the holder of a cryptocurrency address crucial to the investigation, and then attributed to my wife an identity and ownership that did not belong to her," claimed the Chinese national.
Once ownership of the 21.5 million dollars had been ruled out, the financial link was limited to three one-off cryptocurrency transfers in December 2022 totalling around $50,000. According to the defence team, the flow of virtual currency contradicts the police’s theory regarding the collection of commissions, as Shaoyuan made one payment but never received any funds.
Despite proving the lawful origin of their funds - derived from the sale of property in Shanghai for 1.5 million euros and verified by Spanish banks - the family has had assets worth more than 750,000 euros seized: their home, 95,000 euros in cash, and a collection of premium cigars valued at 600,000 euros, which is now at risk of deteriorating. With no income, Shaoyuan and Zhige face collection notices from the tax authorities and social security, as well as mortgage enforcement for 64,429.74 euros from their bank.
On 24 September 2026, the investigating judge declined to set a minimum subsistence allowance and refused to request the original Binance files, dismissing them as "unnecessary". Although the ruling transcribed UDEF’s correction, it immediately went on to repeat the initial allegation regarding ownership of the 21 million dollars.
In light of this situation, the couple's lawyer lodged an appeal with the Provincial Court of Almería, requesting a monthly financial allowance under judicial supervision and the full submission of five key documents from Binance. With the judicial investigation extended until 2 March 2027 and the final police report now more than a year overdue, the defence team has lodged complaints regarding undue delays with the High Court of Justice of Andalucía and the General Council of the Judiciary, calling for an end to nearly two years of procedural stifling stemming from a third party’s account.
Having decided years ago to settle in Spain, the couple sold the businesses in China that they had spent a lifetime building up and transferred the money legally through the standard banking system. With that capital, they rebuilt their lives and founded the company that Zhige now runs.
"The origin of every euro is proven in the case through 119 documents, including deeds, sales contracts, bank statements, and tax documentation," asserted the Chinese businessman.
"There is nothing here that constitutes a personal reproach against the judge or the police investigators," added their defence lawyer. "We are setting out documented facts and their dates, and we are asking for the original documents to be examined and for a decision to be made regarding the situation of a family whose lives have been at a standstill for almost two years because of a mistake that the person responsible has admitted to."