Crypto

Truth and reality will be on display at next week’s OffshoreAlert London conference. Some will like it, some will not, but both will benefit from hearing it. Our eclectic and […]

Well-known distressed crypto investor Thomas Braziel swindled shareholders of an entity he controlled - Fund.com Inc. - out of more than $7 million, engaging in conduct that "meets the elements of crimes that include theft, forgery, and tax evasion", a U.S. court's Special Master has found.

Complaint alleging the defendant "failed to provide" a Bitcoin mining facility "at an 'Uptime of 98% or better” in Hung Infrastructure Ltd., formerly known as Mamoru Mining Ltd., described as a Cayman Islands company thaty it owned by a British Virgin Islands company that is "wholly-owned by Chiu Yu Hung, an individual citizen of Hong Kong SAR" v. Blockware Mining Inc. at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Notice of Thomas Braziel's Exceptions to Special Master's Final Report and Recommendation, including that "Braziel takes exception to the Report to the extent it draws conclusions or makes references, express or implied, regarding Braziel’s actual or potential criminal liability", in B.E. Capital Management Fund L.P. v. Fund.com Inc. at the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.

Director Details for StormX Global SEZC Inc., obtained from the Cayman Islands General Registry on November 22nd, 2023.

Complaint in Celsius Mining LLC, described as a Delaware "cryptocurrency mining" firm v. Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc., described as a Delaware-domiciled "publicly traded digital infrastructure provider"; Luna Squares LLC, which "develops and operates hosting facilities designed for digital asset mining", and Cosmos Infrastructure LLC, which "owns and operates digital asset mining equipment and infrastructure", at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint "to avoid and recover over half a billion dollars in preferential transfers that flowed to Defendants, at their demand, in the months immediately preceding Plaintiff’s commencement of Chapter 11 Proceedings" in Genesis Global Capital LLC, described as a Delaware company "that provides lending and borrowing services for digital assets and fiat currency primarily to and from institutional and high net worth individual customers" v. Gemini Trust Company LLC, individually and on behalf of Earn Users, described as a New York "trust company" that "operates a cryptocurrency platform that enables its users to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies", at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding funds allegedly associated with "Pig Butchering" fraud that were seized from accounts, at least one of which was "accessed by Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong-based IP addresses", in the names of Lim Hock Seng and Yicheng Wang at Binance crypto exchange in USA v. 193,169.0653 USDT, 11,146.8079 USDT, and 18.9649 BTC at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Plea Agreement in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, d.b.a. Binance.com, of the Cayman Islands, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Plea Agreement recommending a fine of $50 million in USA v. Changpeng Zhao at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Government's Memorandum Regarding Plea Proceedings recommending penalties of $4.3 billion and $50 million, respectively, in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, d.b.a. Binance.com, and Changpeng Zhao at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Complaint alleging the defendants operated - in the form of a crypto platform - as a securities exchange, broker/dealer, and clearing agency without being registered in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Payward Inc. and Payward Ventures Inc., collectively doing business as Kraken, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Forfeiture Complaint associated with an allegedly unlicensed money transmitting business operated by Dominica-domiciled Aurum Capital Holdings Inc. and involving "a virtual currency issued by a company called Liberty Reserve" in USA v. All Fund Seized From Morgan Stanley Accounts 658-091821-245 and 658-095221-245 in the name of Maximiliano Pilipis at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Complaint alleging negligence regarding the loss of 336.2008 Bitcoin to a hacker in Hugo Soares, of São Paulo, Brazil v. BitPay Inc., described as "a payment processor that specializes in enabling individuals and businesses to accept payments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies", at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Complaint alleging the defendants "stole cryptocurrency from Plaintiff valued at $911,140.60 pursuant to a sophisticated global internet cryptocurrency fraud and conversion scheme" in Scott Bishop v. Defendant '1', a.k.a. Selina Hsu, described as "a foreign defendant in China", and John Does 1-20 at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the alleged proceeds of "an investment fraud scam, commonly referred to as 'pig butchering', perpetrated on victims throughout the United States" that were seized from an account at Binance in the name of Wanpadet Sae-Heng, of Thailand, in USA v. 97.33604121 Bitcoin, 2,560,435.71078314 Dogecoin, 884.33368015 Ethereum, 85,843.844344 Cardano, and 884.13243271 EthereumPoW at the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.

Complaint alleging breach of contract in Steven Nerayoff, of New York, USA, and Maple Ventures LLC, of Delaware, USA v. StormX Global SEZC Inc., formerly known as CakeCodes Global SEZC, of the Cayman Islands, and StormX Inc., of Delaware, collectively described as "the developers and distributors of a software application - originally called Bitmaker - that allowed users to earn Bitcoin by watching videos or advertisements", at the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Nassau.

Criminal Information alleging the defendant "violated the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully causing Binance Holdings Limited to fail to 23 implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering program" in USA v. Changpeng Zhao at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Criminal Information alleging the defendant "knowingly failed to register as a money services business, willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement and maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, and willfully caused violations of U.S. economic sanctions issued pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act" in USA v. Binance Holdings Limited, d.b.a. Binance.com, of the Cayman Islands, at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Forfeiture Complaint seized from an account at Binance in the name of Hasibul Hasan "during an investigation into a transnational criminal organization running an exploitation of elderly and social engineering scam" in USA v. 36,924.569515 Tether at the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

OffshoreAlert's first Asia conference will be held in Bangkok on February 28-29, 2024. The event will take place at the Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok, a 5-star resort in the heart of the city, near some of Asia’s finest restaurants, shops, and nightlife. There's an emphasis on networking and fun, which is why we're holding our event at a resort in one of the world's most exciting cities that attendees can easily fly into. We want them to combine business with pleasure.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the alleged proceeds of fraud involving a crypto trading platform known as XTRA that were seized from an account at Binance in USA v. Approximately 110607.71 Tether at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the proceeds of alleged "pig butchering" fraud in USA v. 212883.834297 Tether seized from an account at Binance in the name of Liang Jiner at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

Complaint to recover "preferential transfers" in FTX Trading Ltd., of Antigua and Barbuda; West Realm Shires Services Inc., of Delaware, and Alameda Research Ltd., of the British Virgin Islands v. Mirana Corp., of the Seychelles; Bybit Fintech Ltd., of the Seychelles; Time Research Ltd., of the Seychelles; Sin Wei 'Sean' Tan, of Singapore; Wei Lin 'Germaine' Tan, of Singapore; Weizheng Ye, of Singapore, and Nashon Loo Shun Liang, of Singapore, at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the proceeds of alleged fraud and money laundering in crypto accounts associated with Vishal Gautam and 'Sachin', described as citizens of India, in USA v. 18,469.307445 Tether at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Amended Complaint alleging fraud involving a non-fungible token project known as "the CryptoTrump Club" in Olympic Industries LLC and Olympic Media LLC v. John Mancini and Dan Folger at the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

Motion for Leave to File Complaint Under Seal in Stack NFT LLC, which is described on its website as "a utility NFT project" v. NEAR Stiftung (NEAR Foundation), which is described on its website as " a Switzerland-based nonprofit foundation (Stiftung) whose mission is to enable community driven innovation to benefit people around the world", at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Complaint alleging breach of contract regarding an agreement to purchase claims against the FTX crypto group "for 30% of the face value of the claims " in Olympus Peak Trade Claims Opportunities Fund I Non-ECI Master LP, of Delaware v. Ethereal Tech Pte. Ltd., of Singapore, and Burdy Technology Limited, of Hong Kong, at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Superseding Indictment alleging the defendants "participated in a scheme with others to steal millions of dollars from financial institutions by causing transfers of funds between accounts they controlled, then falsely and fraudulently reporting that the transfers were unauthorized, which induced the financial institutions to credit them the amount of the transfers" in USA v. Zhong Shi Gao, Naifeng Xu, and Fei Jiang at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the alleged proceeds of narcotics trafficking involving Christopher Castelluzzo, Luke Atwell, and Brian Krewson in USA v. approximately 30,006 Ether, approximately 153,925.11 Cronos, approximately 244.23 Binance Coin, approximately 764.19 Solana, approximately 23,848.96 Cardano, approximately 32,232.24 Algorand, approximately 299.48 Avalanche, approximately 0.49 Bitcoin, approximately 1,150.71 Polkadot, approximately 1,589.32 Chainlink, approximately 17,208.48 Polygon, approximately 393 TrueUSD, and approximately 2,466.36 Uniswap at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Complaint alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and unjust enrichment in Imran Khan v. Mohamed ElKasstawi at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the alleged proceeds of "a variety of fraud schemes to convince an unsuspecting victim to send co-conspirators money", one of which "involves “pig butchering,” where online co-conspirators utilize social media platforms and dating websites in search of fraud victims" in USA v. 86,766 USDT "seized from OKX account UUID ending 5504 and ID Number ‘097799 with affiliated deposit address ending 94d8" at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

Complaint alleging the defendants "perpetrated a massive fraudulent scheme that generated millions through the unregistered offer and sale of a crypto asset security called the SafeMoon Token" in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. SafeMoon LLC, SafeMoon US LLC, Kyle Nagy, Braden John Karony, and Thomas Glenn Smith at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Criminal Indictment alleging fraud and money laundering involving crypto known as SafeMoon in USA v. Braden John Karony, Kyle Nagy, and Thomas Smith at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Complaint in Gemini Trust Company LLC, of New York, USA, operator of "a cryptocurrency platform that enables its users to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies" v. Genesis Global Capital LLC, of Delaware, USA; Genesis Global HoldCo LLC, of Delaware, USA, and Genesis Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., of Singapore, at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Forfeiture Application regarding the proceeds of alleged fraud and money laundering in a crypto account at Binance, of the Cayman Islands, associated with Prateek Bhatt, of India, in USA v. 11,493.5516 USDT at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Criminal Indictment alleging the defendants "provided money laundering services for fraudulent call centers in India" in USA v. Girish Sharma and Saiyed Nuruddin at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the alleged proceeds of fraud in USA v. All virtual currency in a Binance account at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding the proceeds of "pig butchering" fraud in USA v. 56,382.9700 Tether and 0.03001485 Ether at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Complaint alleging "Defendants stole cryptocurrency from Plaintiff which at the time of the theft had an approximate value of $285,000.00 pursuant to a sophisticated global internet cryptocurrency fraud and conversion scheme" in Kartik Patel v. Defendants 1,2, and 3 and John Does 1-20 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Complaint alleging theft "through an increasingly common and sophisticated fraudulent scheme known as a “pig-butchering scam,” wherein victims such as Plaintiff are “fattened” for financial “slaughter” by tricking the victim into giving cryptocurrency to the scammer through the creation of a website designed to mimic a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange" in Michael Bullock v. Jessica Doe and John Does I-XX, all believed to be residents of Turkey, as Defendants in personam, and 119,873.29 U.S. Dollar Coin and 119,873 Tether Virtual Currency, as Defendants in rem, and BAM Trading Services Inc., d.b.a. Binance.US; Payward Ventures Inc., d.b.a. Kraken; Circle Internet Financial LLC, d.b.a. Circle, and Tether Operations Limited, d.b.a. Tether, of the British Virgin Islands, as Relief Defendants and Garnishees, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

Citing insolvency and the need for a "full investigation" into its activities, Cayman Islands judge David Doyle has granted a petition to wind up crypto/forex investment firm AuBit International, which is suspected of committing a $160 million fraud.

Complaint alleging misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud, and unfair competition in CipherBlade LLC, of Pennsylvania, USA, described as "a blockchain investigation company that investigates cryptocurrency-related matters, often involving cybercrime" v. CipherBlade LLC, of Alaska, USA; Manuel Kriz, of Cyprus; Michael Krause, of Cyprus; Jorn Henrik Bernhard Janssen, of Cyprus; Justin Maile, of Cyprus; Ioana Vidrasan, CipherBlade APAC Pte Ltd., of Singapore; Jussi Aittola, of Singapore; Omega3Zone Global Ltd., of Cyprus; Paul Marnitz, of Cyprus; Inquisita Solutions Ltd., of Cyprus, and Green Stone Business Advisory FZ LLC, of the United Arab Emirates, at the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

Ex Tempore Judgment granting the plaintiffs' petition for a winding-up order in LedgerScore International Pte Ltd., of Singapore; LS Litigation Holdings LLC, of Wyoming, USA, and Earn Guild Pte Ltd., of Singapore, collectively described in the winding up petition as “retail investors who utilized an online cryptocurrency trading platform operated by the Company called “Freeway”, and who invested in Freeway’s Supercharger program” v. AuBit International at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding crypto "obtained by agents with the United States Secret Service during an investigation into a transnational criminal organization running an exploitation of elderly and social engineering scam" in USA v. 0.4157802 Bitcoin and 90,922.262837 Tether seized from an account in the name of Ram Kumar at Binance crypto exchange, filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding crypto "obtained by agents with the United States Secret Service (“USSS”) during an investigation into a transnational criminal organization running an exploitation of elderly and social engineering scam" in USA v. 50,471.58 Tether that was seized from a crypto account in the name of Guo Baokun at Binance crypto exchange, filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Forfeiture Complaint regarding crypto that was seized from an account in the name of Pan Zhimin at Binance crypto exchange "during an investigation into a transnational criminal organization running an investment fraud scheme" in USA v. 44,799.79 Tether at the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Complaint alleging negligent misrepresentation regarding a $5 million investment in "a global digital collective card game that integrated features of a dynamic strategy game with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of cryptocurrency" in WarpSpeed Trading Ltd., of the British Virgin Islands v. AVY Entertainment Inc., of California, and BTSE Holdings Ltd., described as a British Virgin Islands-domiciled "cryptocurrency exchange", at the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles.

Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction, Monetary Judgment, and Other Relief in Federal Trade Commission v. Voyager Digital LLC, Voyager Digital Holdings Inc., Voyager Digital Ltd., of Canada, and Stephen Ehrlich, as Defendants, and Francine Ehrlich, as Relief Defendant, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Complaint in Federal Trade Commission v. Voyager Digital LLC, Voyager Digital Holdings Inc., Voyager Digital Ltd., of Canada, and Stephen Ehrlich, as Defendants, and Francine Ehrlich, as Relief Defendant, at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.