Philippine police say that the division of labor in the Guo kidnapping case is clear! The ransom was converted into cryptocurrency.

The latest report from the Philippine police states that the core suspect in the kidnapping and ransom case of Chinese businessman Guo Ansen, Kelly Tan Lim (phonetically transcribed), was last seen on Boracay Island. She is accused of being one of the masterminds behind the incident, responsible for coordinating the receipt and transfer of a 200 million peso ransom.

According to the police, the Guo family transferred a total of 23 million pesos to a designated e-wallet on March 31 and April 2 in exchange for the safety of Guo Ansen and his driver. The ransom was initially split through two gambling intermediaries and then transferred into at least ten different e-wallet accounts, quickly converted into cryptocurrencies in an attempt to evade fund tracking.

The funds involved multiple account holders, including Lin Mouyu, Deng Mouzhi, Lin Ning, Luo Mouhui, Ruan Moudong, and others, with one transaction flowing into an account under the name of Ni Mouhui, who had previously been investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation for espionage.

The police stated that part of the ransom eventually flowed into an organization named "Jiuding Group," whose behind-the-scenes leader is Wang Liduan (also known as Mark Wang, Mark Ong), a Chinese national from Fujian. He had applied for Philippine citizenship and was voted on by both houses of Congress, but his application was vetoed by the president on April 11 due to national security concerns raised about his background.

So far, three suspects have been arrested, including David Tan Liao, Ricardo Austria, and Remat Cartquista. Two others, Jonin Lin and Kelly Tan Lim, are still at large, with the latter using multiple aliases such as Bao Wenli, Axin, and Huang Yanling. The police also questioned two Chinese nationals on Boracay Island to confirm their association with Kelly Tan Lim.

The police pointed out that the anonymity and decentralization of cryptocurrencies pose significant challenges to the investigation of the case, and efforts to track the related networks are ongoing.