The story of PlusToken, one of the largest scams in the cryptocurrency industry, takes another twist as dozens of major suspects have been arrested. As many as 27 core PlusToken team members have been arrested by Chinese police, according to a July 30 report by local industry publication ChainNews. According to the report, the total amount of investor losses in the PlusToken scam is estimated at 40 billion Chinese yuan or $5.7 billion. The report also mentions that investigators have also arrested another 82 core members of the scheme. Dovey Wan, founding partner of blockchain-based investment company Primitive Ventures, tweeted …
Yang Zuoxing, formerly a top chip designer for mining hardware giant Bitmain, has allegedly been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement. A Dec. 16 Bloomberg report cites three unnamed sources and a police statement released by prosecutors in Beijing’s Nanshan district on Dec. 12, as evidence for the claim. The authorities’ statement reportedly omitted reference to Yang’s full Chinese name, ostensibly to protect his anonymity. Industry rivalries Yang Zuoxing had worked as a processor design director at Bitmain until 2016, where he helped develop the manufacturer’s flagship Antminer S7 and S9 models. He left the firm in June of that year, …
Thai immigration officials have arrested 24 Chinese nationals who were running an alleged cryptocurrency scam call center in the Rama III neighborhood of Bangkok. According to an official announcement on Dec. 2, the Immigration Bureau of the Royal Thai Police arrested 24 individuals, seized 61 laptops, 424 mobile phones and several routers. The Immigration Bureau further states that the head of the operation would hire employees on three-month contracts, wherein all their expenses were paid including a 5,000 yuan ($710) monthly salary. After arriving, workers would surrender their passports to the head of the operation. Employees would work shifts from …
Chinese police are reportedly taking legal action against non-custodial token trading platform EtherDelta in connection with an apparent exit scam. The news was reported on Aug. 7 in a series of tweets published by Dovey Wan, founding partner at blockchain-focused investment firm Primitive Ventures. New Chinese owners allegedly used EtherDelta for exit scam ICO Wan’s tweets indicate that the alleged exit scam involved the sale of native exchange asset EtherDelta Token (EDT) following the acquisition of the exchange by unnamed Chinese investors: “The actual beneficiaries of EtherDelta are all Chinese after ownership transition in 2017 [...] Basically [the founder] Zack …
Disclaimer: this article has been updated to include comments from Vanbex. Canadian police have frozen assets of the founders of blockchain consulting firm Vanbex, which raised $22 million in an alleged fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO). The development was reported in a court document released on March 14. According to the document, Vanbex founders Kevin Hobbs and Lisa Cheng claimed to the public that they operated a Vancouver-based cryptocurrency firm, starting from 2017. The firm, which was interchangeably called Vanbex and Etherparty, is actually a shell company that developed no useable products, the court document argues. The police have now …