The financial toll in Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency scandal has risen to HK$1.2 billion (US$154 million) involving over 1,600 investors, with the biggest victim sinking HK$40 million into JPEX’s scam, police said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The police received complaints from 1,641 investors as of 10.30pm Monday, involving HK$1.19 billion in assets, the Hong Kong commercial crime bureau’s acting chief inspector Mak Wai-kwong said at the joint press conference with the city’s securities watchdog agency.
The case, a little more than three months after a new virtual asset regulatory framework came into effect, is a major test of Hong Kong’s ability to balance investor protection with the city’s ambition as a fintech hub and to keep up with the fast-growing world of cryptocurrency.
The city’s police arrested eight people in connection with investigations into alleged fraud at JPEX, Mak said. Bank accounts with HK$15 million were frozen, and three properties valued at HK$44 million were seized, he said.
The news is published by EMEA Tribune & SCMP
