Hong Kong authorities have arrested 72 people in the $204 million JPEX exchange fraud case

Its founders have been on the run since last September

19.04.2024 - 10:17

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2 min

What’s new? Hong Kong police have arrested 72 people in the JPEX cryptocurrency exchange fraud case and frozen 228 million HKD in related assets. The JPEX incident is the largest fraud case in Hong Kong, law enforcers have received over 2600 referrals in the case and the amount of claims is estimated at 1,6 billion HKD ($204,3 million).

Material by SCMP

What else is known? Last year, JPEX halted trading, citing a liquidity crisis, after which its clients began contacting law enforcers. The local Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) began investigating the platform’s activities and threatened it with criminal liability for operating without registration.

After that, JPEX set exorbitant withdrawal fees. Thus, the maximum limit was 1000 USDT stablecoins, while the platform’s fee was 980 USDT. The founders of the exchange, according to the media, went on the run.

At the time, blockchain analysts reported that the platform was actively used for money laundering, which could put bona fide investors at risk.

Influencers involved in the JPEX ads were among those arrested.

In total, Hong Kong law enforcers received 2342 complaints of crypto investment fraud last year, with damages totaling 3,16 billion HKD ($403,5 million).

Bloomberg analyst predicts an insignificant inflow of funds into Hong Kong crypto ETFs

Eric Balchunas called the shortcomings of the local market, which may prevent the attraction of large amounts of capital

Earlier, Hong Kong authorities warned investors against using Bybit and MEXC, threatening the crypto exchanges with enforcement action due to lack of local registration, and began investigating Worldcoin due to potential violations of personal data privacy laws.

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