A former director of Blockchain Global, an Australian cryptocurrency company that went bankrupt and owed creditors $58 million, has been banned from leaving the country.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission secured an interim travel ban in the Federal Court on February 20, claiming director Liang “Alan” Guo was a flight risk.
Mr. Guo, a Chinese national, was ordered to hand over his passport to the court.
The hearing was held in Guo’s absence, so he did not have an opportunity to respond immediately to the verdict.
Mr Guo, along with fellow directors Sam Lee and Ryan Hsu, were referred to ASIC by the liquidator for alleged breaches of company law. ASIC is investigating the allegations.
Mr Lee and Mr Xu were also involved in a cryptocurrency investment scheme known as HyperVerse, which was the subject of a Guardian Australia investigation and which defrauded investors around the world of US$1.89 billion. It is said that Guo is not believed to be involved in the HyperVerse project.
Mr Lee, who currently lives in Dubai, is facing charges in the US for his involvement in the Hyperverse scheme, which the US Securities and Exchange Commission has described as a “pyramid scheme and pyramid scheme”. He has not responded to the charges.
In a Federal Court judgment released on Wednesday, Mr Justice Button said the charges against Mr Guo were “very serious” and agreed to ban him from leaving Australia until August 20.
These included allegations of transferring investor funds for personal gain.
“ASIC also revealed that while Mr. Guo was a director, he transferred $2.6 million from the bank account where investor funds were held, with some of the money being applied to his personal mortgage account and personal bank account. “It was also pointed out,” the judgment said.
“ASIC also revealed that Mr. Guo held 23.11 Bitcoins, said to be worth approximately $1.8 million, owned by Blockchain Global and transferred them to a virtual currency wallet controlled by Mr. Guo on December 8, 2019. He also mentioned that he had done so.”
ASIC said Mr Guo was “the only person left in Australia closely involved in Blockchain Global’s operations” given that Blockchain Global’s other directors left Australia shortly after the bankruptcy. He claimed that there was.
“ASIC anticipates that the interviews and interrogations of Mr. Guo will be critical to the progress of the investigation, and as a result, we anticipate that brief evidence may be forwarded to the Director of Federal Public Prosecutions.'' the judgment stated.
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According to the ruling, ASIC expects it will take 12 months to investigate and submit a summary of the evidence to the DPP.
Among his reasons, Mr Button commented on apparent delays in the investigation into ASIC, which was launched on January 16 following Guardian Australia’s investigation into HyperVerse.
“It is not clear why an investigation was initiated when Blockchain Global failed. Nevertheless, the investigation, although in its early stages, is progressing steadily.”
ASIC said in a statement that it applied for the travel restriction order “out of concern that Mr. Guo may leave the country while the investigation continues.”
“As the hearing took place in Mr. Guo’s absence, Mr. Guo has not yet had the opportunity to respond to ASIC’s application or the basis on which ASIC asserts that the order is necessary.”
Mr Guo has so far not responded to Guardian Australia’s questions about the allegations against him in the liquidator’s report submitted to ASIC.
He has been asked to comment on the travel ban.
Source: www.theguardian.com
