Crypto

In a legal action in which he is seeking $395 million in damages for an alleged fraud involving a cryptocurrency scheme, Canadian Troy Hogg claims two Americans "misappropriated" $250,000 he gave them in 2019 to try to obtain a bank license in Bermuda, OffshoreAlert can reveal.

Summons With Notice for damages of $395 million alleging fraud and misappropriation regarding a cryptocurrency scheme in Troy James Hogg, a citizen of Canada, individually, and Leila Holdings Ltd., of Bermuda, derivatively on behalf of Arbitrade Ltd., also of Bermuda v. Stephen Lance Braverman, Kent Mason Swig, Dignity Mining Group LLC, Charles Hamlin Woodworth, Daniel Francis Sweet, Coinmint LLC, of Puerto Rico; Prieur Leary, Hayden Gill, Max Warren Barber, William Richard Saunders, Shaun L. Heseltine, ABCOR International Ltd., of Belize; Scotia International of Nevada Inc., of Utah; SION Trading FZE, of the United Arab Emirates; Jeffrey Muller, Victor George Webb, G4S Cash Services LLC, of the United Arab Emirates; Peter Walters, Kaled Swlaiman Salem Bokhem, Silver Estate Management Ltd., of Wyoming; E. Warren Goss, and Impact Partners, of New York, at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.

Search Report for Crypto Lotus Fund B (Master) Ltd., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on November 22nd, 2021.

Search Report for Crypto Lotus Fund B (International) Ltd., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on November 22nd, 2021.

Director Details for Crypto Lotus Fund B (Master) Ltd., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on November 22nd, 2021.

Director Details for Crypto Lotus Fund B (International) Ltd., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on November 21, 2021.

News Release and Petition by Dr. Jonathan Levy, a lawyer based in England, "acting on behalf of investors and creditors of OneCoin", described as "one of the largest and most successful financial pyramids in history", seeking "an investigation of misfeasance by the Bulgarian government" for taking "no steps to seize assets from OneCoin including real estate, bank accounts, and 230,000 Bitcoins worth over €12 billion".

Notice of Removal of a Class Action Complaint alleging unjust enrichment and violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act in Kamil Kuplineski, a resident of Illinois v. Binance Capital Management Co. Ltd., d.b.a. Binance, described as a cryptocurrency exchange that is domiciled in the British Virgin Islands after being "initially founded in China" before moving to Japan, then Malta, and denying it was domiciled in the Cayman Islands; BAM Trading Services, d.b.a. Binance US, described as a Delaware company based in San Francisco, and Jumio Corporation at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

SEC's application for an order to show cause and requiring compliance with subpoenas in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Terraform Labs Pte Ltd., described as "a Singapore-incorporated computer programming and digital asset company", and Do Kwon, of South Korea, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Transcript of Ex Tempore Ruling regarding a claim for $10 million alleging stolen cryptocurrency in Samir Bandali, a citizen of Canada residing in the Cayman Islands v. CoinPayments Inc., described as conducting "business from the Cayman Islands offering worldwide cryptocurrency merchant processing services and individual cryptocurrency accounts", and Oleksandr Aleksandrov, a.k.a. Alex Alexandrov, at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Complaint alleging fraud in Green Sands Investment Club B LLC v. Crypto Lotus Fund A LP, described as a Delaware-domiciled "cryptocurrency hedge fund" with an affiliate in the Cayman Islands, and Jonas Lauren Norr, described as a resident of California, at the Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Alameda.

Complaint in Terraform Labs Pte Ltd., of Singapore, described as "the developer of Terra, a decentralized and open-source public blockchain network, and the Mirror Protocol, a decentralized finance protocol built on Terra that is governed by its stakeholder community", and Do Kwon, a citizen and resident of South Korea v. U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Announcement by Intel Suisse, a financial investigation and asset recovery firm, that it "has been engaged to investigate and seek recovery of financial losses arising from multiple trading platform failures at online tradng platform Thinkmarkets, a global portal offered by Think Capital Limited of Bermuda".

Court Docket in Steven Paul Kowolski v. BAM Trading Services Inc., Binance Asia Services Pte. Ltd., of Singapore; Binance Holdings Ltd., of the Cayman Islands; Binance US, Hiu Lam Cookie Choi, Brandon Chun Yin Ng, Oksana Aleksandrovna Dolgopolova, Nurlan Neqmat Ogly Guliev, Kraken, Wai Kit Lo, and Payward Inc. at the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, in and for Miami-Dade County, Florida. Editor's Note: This case was sealed in its entirety on the same day it was opened, meaning that not even the names of the parties, much less the filings, are currently publicly-available from the Court.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence from Paxful Inc., described as a cruptocurrency exchange - pursuant to a request for judicial assistance from Italy - for a criminal investigation into unknown persons for "illegally offering the sale of vials of counterfeit Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine".

British Virgin Islands-domiciled crypto 'stablecoin' group Tether has been fined $41 million for fraud by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which also fined BVI crypto exchange Bitfinex $1.5 million for unlicensed activity and other offenses.

Administrative Order by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposing a fine of $41 million on Tether Holdings Limited, Tether Operations Limited, and Tether International Limited, all of the British Virgin Islands, and Tether Limited, of Hong Kong, for alleged fraud with its "virtual currency stablecoin".

Administrative Order by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposing a fine of $1.5 million on iFinex Inc., BFXNA Inc., and BFXWW Inc., all of the British Virgin Islands, a crypto group collectively doing business as Bitfinex, for regulatory breaches.

A purported blockchain company - DappTricity Plc - transferred its assets to an entity in the British Virgin Islands and closed down while it was failing to comply with an inspection by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority, according to the regulator.

Complaint alleging breach of contract in John S. Quick, a.k.a. Sebastian Quick v. Blockchain Global Limited, f.k.a. Bitcoin Group; Samuel Xue Lee, Ryan Ling Ziking Xu, and Allen Liang Guo, all of Australia, at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.

Public Statement by the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority regarding the de-registration of DappTricity Plc, an Isle of Man company whose "whitepaper" identified its product as "blockchain-based systems for finance and gaming" and whose assets, according to the Isle of Man FSA, were transferred to "a company in the British Virgin Islands" after failing a regulatory inspection in the Isle of Man in March, 2021.

Complaint alleging "a fraudulent scheme that sought to, and ultimately did, steal $680,000 worth of cryptocurrency from Plaintiff" in Robert Guarini v. John Doe and Binance, which is domiciled in the Cayman Islands, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Class Action Complaint in Christopher Underwood, Louis Oberlander, and Zeneyda Patin v. Coinbase Global Inc., described as the operator of "two digital asset trading platforms: Coinbase and Coinbase Pro", at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Criminal Indictment alleging conspiracy "to launder the proceeds of online investment fraud schemes and to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business to transfer the proceeds of criminal offenses, including wire fraud" in USA v. Tochukwu Abel Edeh, described as a citizen of Nigeria, at the U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Opinion and Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part Defendants' motions to dismiss a class action complaint known as "Tether and Bitfinex Crypto Asset Litigation" in which "a group of individual investors who purchased cryptocommodities - a class of crypto-assets that includes bitcoin - detailed a wide-ranging conspiracy to artificially inflate the price of those cryptocommodities" by entities in or from the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Panama, and USA in Pinchas Goldshtein et al v. iFinex Inc., BFXNA Inc., BFXWW Inc., Tether Holdings Limited, Tether Operations Limited, Tether Limited, Tether International Limited, DigFinex Inc., Giancarlo Devasini, Ludovicus Jan van der Velde, Philip Potter, Reginald Fowler, Crypto Capital Corp., Bittrex, Inc., and Poloniex, LLC at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence from cryptocurrency trading platform Paxful.com - pursuant to a request for judicial assistance from Austria - for a criminal investigation into "unknown subjects for fraud" involving "an investment opportunity in Bitcoin via Forex and binary options on an online platform".

Notice of Removal, including a copy of the complaint, in Chardan Capital Markets LLC, of New York v. Diginex Limited, a cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform described in the complaint as "a Singapore company whose principal place of business is in Hong Kong, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging "fraudulent inducement to invest in cryptocurrency followed by embezzlement of that investment" in Jonathan Lowry, individually and derivatively on behalf of Vix Capital Partners LP v. Gabriel Edelman, , described as a resident of New York and Spain; Vix Capital Partners LP, Edelman Blockchain Advisors, Nehemia Markovits, Louis Taubman, Hunter Taubman Rischer & Li LLC, IFM Investors, of Australia; Interactive Brokers, Chen Edelman, described as a resident of New York and Spain, and Jiyson Edelman at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Application by the USA to collect evidence from the "Paxful cryptocurrency exchange" - pursuant to a request for judicial assistance from the Netherlands - for a criminal investigation into "Dutch citizen Adam Attahir for fraud and possession of a technical tool designed for committing a crime".

Criminal Judgment imposing a prison-term of seven-and-a-half years for a cryptocurrency-based securities fraud involving two Cayman Islands-domiciled, New York-based investment funds, Virgil Sigma Fund and VQR Multistrategy Fund, in USA v. Stefan He Qin, a citizen of Australia residing in New York, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Class Action Complaint in Ryan Cox v. CoinMarketCap OpCo LLC, described as Delaware company that operates "a coin ranking site"; Binance Capital Management Co. Ltd., d.b.a. Binance and Binance.com, described as the operator of "a cryptocurrency exchange"; BAM Trading Services Inc., d.b.a. Binance.us; Changpeng Zhao, apparently a citizen of Canada and China; Catherine Coley, Yi He, and Ted Lin at the U. S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

Complaint alleging breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract in Jingjing Zhou, of Connecticut v. Youbi Capital (Cayman) GP, of the Cayman Islands; Yaofei Chen, of New Jersey; Hyejin Lee, of New Jersey, and Chen Li, of New York, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Cayman Islands and Delaware components of crypto group Rivetz and their principal, George Sprague, are being sued by the SEC in the U.S. for allegedly selling unregistered digital assets that raised $18 million from 7,200 investors worldwide.

Complaint alleging the sale of unregistered digital assets in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Rivetz Corp., of Delaware; Rivetz International SEZC, of the Cayman Islands, and Steven K. Sprague, described as a resident of the Cayman Islands and Massachusetts, at the U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Public Warning by the Bermuda Monetary Authority against Think Capital Limited, part of the "ThinkMarkets group of companies", which "falsely claimed to have a licence issued by the Bermuda Monetary Authority" and which, when contacted by the BMA, claimed that "the statement was made in error and that, instead, it should have stated that it had been issued a licence by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority". Editor's Note: On its website at www.thinkmarkets.com, ThinkMarkets claims to operate "a premium multi-asset online brokerage with headquarters in London and Melbourne and hubs in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe and South America", and identifies group companies as TF Global Markets Int Limited, of the Seychelles; TF Global Markets (UK) Limited, of England; TF Global Markets (Aust) Limited, of Australia; TF Global Markets (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., of South Africa; Think Capital Limited, of Bermuda, and TFG (Payments) Limited, of England. Research by OffshoreAlert also discovered other group companies, including one in the Cayman Islands called TF Global Markets (International) Ltd., which is identified on CIMA's website as having received a "Securities - Full" license on April 12th, 2021.

Public Announcement by the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission that its Board "has resolved to propose that Minister of Finance consider revocation of digital asset exchange license of Huobi (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (Huobi), currently named DSDAQ (Thailand) Co., Ltd." and ordered the company "to return all assets to its clients".

Complaint alleging "greed, theft, and dishonesty" involving "immersion cooling systems for crypto-currency and certain blockchain applications" in Treis Blockchain LLC v. John Chain and Chain Enterprises LLC at the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.

Petition "to maintain certain information as exempt from FOIL disclosure relating to a settlement with OAG in February 2021" by iFinex Inc., BFXNA Inc., BFXWW Inc., both of the British Virgin Islands, doing business as Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange; Tether Holdings Limited, Tether Operations Limited, Tether International Limited, all of the British Virgin Islands, and Tether Limited, of Hong Kong, collectively the provider of digital tokens v. State of New York, Office of the Attorney General, and Kathryn Sheingold, as Freedom of Information Law Appeals Officer, at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.

USA's Sentencing Submission regarding a cryptocurrency-based investment fraud involving Cayman Islands-domiciled, New York-based investment funds in USA v. Stefan He Qin, a citizen of Australia residing in New York, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint alleging a securities fraud "that ultimately succeeded in obtaining more than 325,000 Bitcoin, or approximately $2 billion, from investors worldwide" in U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. BitConnect, described as "an unincorporated organization"; Satish Kumbhani, described as a citizen and resident of India; Glenn Arcaro, described as a citizen of the United States residing in California, and Future Money Ltd., of Hong Kong, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The U.S. SEC has sued individuals and companies based in California, India, and Hong Kong for allegedly perpetrating a $2 billion crypto fraud known as BitConnect.

Amended Complaint alleging fraud and unregistered securities regarding the sale of cryptocurrency tokens involving Delaware and Cayman Islands-domiciled Crowd Machine in George Bachiashvili v. Charlie Shrem and Roger Tichenor at the U. S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Statement of Allegations in the matter of Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd., described as a Seychelles-domiciled operator of "an online crypto asset trading platform", for "violating Ontario securities law", before the Ontario Securities Commission.

Judgment regarding an employment dispute in Michael McDaid v. Novus Fintech Limited, of Dubai, at the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts. Editor's Note: Novus Fintech Limited was exposed as a fraud by OffshoreAlert in February 2021. The company is operated by United Kingdom national Stuart Coles and is part of a group whose principals include British/Irish serial investment fraudster Richard Fagan.

Retired Olympic speed skating champion Apolo Ohno and companies operating from Cyprus, Hong Kong, Malta, and Singapore that he allegedly founded are being sued in California for an alleged $50 million crypto fraud.

Complaint alleging theft, misappropriation, and securities fraud regarding the raising of $50 million "from investors based around the world, including within the United States" from the sale of "digital tokens" that were "neither registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission nor qualified for any exemption from registration with the SEC, thereby depriving investors of the benefit of the disclosures required by the federal securities laws" in Brian Kang, Skyblock LLC, Mid-Wilshire Consulting LLC, Prasad Hurra, David Kim, Blue Rock Group, Artemio Verduzo, David Kwon, and Young Jae Kwon v. Hybrid Trade Limited, described as operating from addresses in Hong Kong, Malta, and Singapore; Asia Digital Asset Exchange, described as operating from an address in Cyprus; Allysian Sciences, Apolo Ohno, a former Olympic speed skating champion; Rod Jao, Eugenio Pugliese, and Henry Liu at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Consent Order imposing a civil penalty of $100 million against the operators of the BitMEX cryptocurrency trading platform in Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. HDR Global Trading Limited, of the Seychelles; 100x Holdings Limited, of Bermuda; ABS Global Trading Limited, of Delaware; Shine Effort Inc Limited, of Hong Kong, and HDR Global Services (Bermuda) Limited, of Bermuda, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Public Notice by FinCEN that it has imposed a fine of $100 million on HDR Global Trading Limited, of the Seychelles; 100x Holdings Limited, ABS Global Trading Limited, of Delaware; Shine Effort Inc. Limited, of Hong Kong, and HDR Global Services (Bermuda) Limited, of Bermuda, d.b.a. BitMEX, described as "a convertible virtual currency derivatives exchange".

Companies in Bermuda, Hong Kong, the Seychelles, and USA have agreed to pay $100 million to settle a complaint by the CFTC alleging they operated an unregistered cryptocurrency trading platform known as BitMEX.

Administrative Order by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission imposing penalties totaling $10.3 million on Poloniex, LLC, of Delaware, for operating "a digital asset trading platform" without registering "as a national securities exchange".