When running a scam, it’s probably best not to draw unnecessary attention to yourself. Wong Ching-kit is learning that lesson the hard way, as he’s now been arrested by Hong Kong’s Commercial Crime Bureau for running a mining related fraud scheme, the South China Morning Post reports.
The arrests came after complaints from several investors that Wong had sold them mining hardware for a crypto called “Filecoin.” They were promised they’d receive profits within three months. The Democratic Party of Hong Kong then received more than 20 complaints in the last few months, with losses amounting to HK$3 million (US$383,000). The coin was apparently untradeable.
Wong has been arrested with a 20-year old accomplice. Their investors are demanding full refunds on their investment, which seems unlikely to happen.
Police first started investigating Wong for money laundering, for which he was indignant. Then in December 2018, he “made it rain,” throwing the equivalent of $765 out of a high-rise building window in the Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong. For that he was arrested for disorderly conduct, but was eventually released on bail.
Wong wasn’t a stranger to the law before these incidents. He was also previously arrested in 2012 for theft when working as a swimming instructor.
This isn’t the only scam going on in the industry, unfortunately. Another crypto startup in China is coming under increasing scrutiny for their faked team members and pyramid scheme like business plan, with the XBTC.CX crypto exchange apparently in on the plan. That team is also defending their project, and they should considering the penalty for such a scheme in China is death.
Recently in Thailand, thirty victims came forward to accuse Pimongkol Tawpibarn of doing roughly the same thing as Wong; he took their money and promised 70% guaranteed returns once his mining business took off.
Wong will find it much harder to get out of this jam. Disorderly conduct is one thing to explain, but having dozens of complaints and millions in debt will ensure investigators take a very hard look before letting him free again.
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