Regulation
Interpol issues warnings for two Hong Kong crypto influencers as JPEX case heats up – DL News
- Last year, cryptocurrency exchange JPEX disappeared with an estimated $200 million in funds.
- Police say the site used promoters to lure cryptocurrency investors.
- Authorities have not yet identified who operated JPEX.
In a move that intensifies its investigation into one of Hong Kong’s most notorious cryptocurrency exchanges, Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, issued two payment notices on Thursday for promoters Ching-Kit Wong and Tsun-Ting Mok.
Wong, 30, also known as “Coin Young Master,” is wanted on one count of fraud and two counts of theft.
Mok is charged with two counts of trafficking in property known or believed to be the proceeds of a prosecutable crime.
Last year, Hong Kong police arrested the two influencers in connection with JPEX, the Hong Kong cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed last September.
The pair were promoting JPEX to potential investors, police said. But they have not been charged.
More than 2,600 victims have come forward, with total losses amounting to HK$1.6 billion, or $200 million.
73 arrests
The Red Notices, which call on Interpol’s 196 member countries to locate and arrest their targets, do not cite JPEX as the reason for the warrants.
DL News was unable to reach Wong and Mok for comment. Coin Young Master’s Youtube account is inactive and his Instagram account has been set to private.
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At least 73 people have been arrested in the police investigation, but Hong Kong police have not charged anyone. Authorities have not identified who is behind JPEX.
At the same time, investors deposited a civil case trying to recover lost deposits.
But it’s not the first time the two men have gotten into trouble with the law. Wong, a former swimming instructor, was sentenced to community service in 2012 for stealing a phone from a swimming pool. In 2018, he reinvented himself as a Lamborghini-driving cryptocurrency promoter.
Money from a roof
In December of that year, Wong was arrested for disorderly conduct in a public place after throw away thousands of dollars in cash from a rooftop in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district.
The shower of hundred-dollar bills created havoc on the street below as people struggled to retrieve them.
He received a suspended sentence of 10 days in prison. Local media dubbed him the “Bitcoin playboy.”
Fake currency
According to police, in 2019, Wong and Mok, 26, who worked as his assistant, promoted a fake virtual currency mining machine.
After their arrest, police said they had defrauded 18 people of about HK$3 million. They were later released on bail.
Leo Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, criticized Wong after the Sham Shui Po incident.
Weese raised doubts about whether Wong was a Bitcoin millionaire on X, saying he was well known in the community for running a “pyramid scheme.”
“Six years and a couple of scams later, Wong Ching-kit has an Interpol red notice against him and appears to no longer be in Hong Kong,” Weese tweeted July 25th.
Callan Quinn is DL News Hong Kong Correspondent. Contact her at callan@dlnews.com.