Australia’s corporate regulator will investigate the details of collapsed bitcoin company Blockchain Global after a Guardian Australia investigation linked two directors to a series of failed crypto investment schemes.
Blockchain Global collapsed in 2021, owing creditors $58 million, and its liquidator referred directors Allan Guo, Sam Lee and Ryan Xu to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for alleged breaches of corporate law. This includes possible breaches of director duties, breach of trust and director-related unfair dealings.
Asic initially notified liquidator Pitcher Partners that it would not take action after receiving the first report on the company’s activities in March 2022.
However, following Guardian Australia’s investigation into the Hyperverse cryptocurrency investment scheme linked to Mr Lee and Mr Hsu, Asic began investigating the liquidator’s report. The final version was submitted to Asic in October.
An Asic spokesperson told Guardian Australia: “Asic has confirmed that it is assessing the liquidator’s report regarding BGL.”
Guardian Australia has uncovered a wide-ranging investigation into a Hyperverse investment scheme that evaded the attention of Australian regulators despite being flagged by overseas authorities as a potential “fraud” and a “suspected pyramid scheme”. revealed a significant loss.
Court documents filed in January in the US against Bitcoin Rodney, a senior US promoter of Hyperfund and Hyperverse, allege that the scheme operates using a network and that promoters It alleges that it has made “fraudulent promotional presentations” to investors. He is charged with operating and conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transfer business.
An affidavit filed by the Internal Revenue Service alleges that early investors were “paid with funds raised from recent investors,” and that the company’s alleged revenue-generating Bitcoin mining operations were claims that it did not exist. Neither Xu nor Li is mentioned in court documents filed by authorities in the case.
Lee denied being behind HyperVerse and said his involvement was limited to the technology and financial management side of the organization. Lee and his Xu appeared at his 2021 HyperVerse global launch event with a fake CEO named Stephen Reece Lewis. Mr. Xu and Mr. Lee also featured prominently in promotional materials for HyperFund and his pre-HyperVerse initiative known as HyperCapital.
It was later revealed by the Guardian that Rhys-Lewis was British Stephen Harrison, who had only been employed for a short period as a “corporate presenter” through a talent agent and had no real business role. He also said that he could not stand up.
Lee moved to Dubai in 2021, but Xu’s whereabouts are unknown. Guo is not involved in Hypergroup’s plans.
US-based cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainaracy estimates that losses to HyperVerse in 2022 will reach US$1.3 billion (A$1.97 billion).
Asic’s move to investigate the blockchain global collapse comes after liquidators revealed possible links in the company’s records to the operation of HCash, a cryptocurrency linked to the Hyper Investment scheme. .
“The liquidator has identified two debt transactions totaling $500,000 in Blockchain Global’s main bank account.” [linked to HCash]. Both of these transactions took place on 5 August 2019,” Pitcher Partners liquidator Andrew Yeo told Guardian Australia in a statement.
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Rewards accumulated through the previous Hyper scheme were converted to HCash before being converted to other cryptocurrencies.
According to the HyperTech Group Organization Chart, HCash was one of three Australian companies to support the Hyper investment scheme in partnership with Blockchain Global, Collinstar Capital and the HCash Foundation.
According to HyperTech Group’s promotional materials, Collinstar Capital, Blockchain Global, and HCash were a “multi-billion dollar group of companies.”
HCash’s official Telegram group acknowledged its relationship with HyperTech and HyperCapital in 2019, stating that it is “partnered with HyperTech Group.”
According to Asic documents, HCash Tech Pty Ltd is owned by Xu and Jianbo “Jacob” Cheng and was founded in 2017. The application for deregistration was filed in May 2023.
Corinstar Capital was owned by Mr. Xu until mid-2022, after which Mr. Chen took over.
According to Asic documents, the company’s 40 founder shares were transferred from Mr. Xu to Mr. Cheng for $5.50, while 200,000 non-cumulative preferred shares were transferred for free and $125,000 worth of unpaid shares were transferred. It was listed.
Mr Chen did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia.
Mr Lee did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia until the publication of an earlier article about his involvement in the creation and operation of Hyperfund and Hyperverse. He previously denied the scheme was a scam.
He claimed in a WhatsApp message after the article was published that it contained “misrepresentations” about his role in carrying out the Hyper project, but did not respond to questions about what that was. He also said that “people on the internet continue to [sic] to reconcile things. ”
Mr Lee also did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia about the results of the liquidator’s investigation into Blockchain Global.
Source: www.theguardian.com
