Key takeaways:
- Amidst an investigation into his involvement in Blockchain Global’s demise, the company’s former director has been temporarily prohibited from leaving the nation.
- Guo was not there when the order was made at the hearing; thus, he was unable to react right away. Guo is scheduled to appear in court again on March 12.
Amidst an investigation into his involvement in the demise of the Australian cryptocurrency company Blockchain Global, which owes creditors $37 million (58 million Australian dollars), the company’s former director has been temporarily prohibited from leaving the nation.
On February 28, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced that it had obtained an interim travel restraint order from the Federal Court of Australia against the company’s director, Liang “Allan” Guo, dated February 20.
Guo, a Chinese national, is not allowed to leave Australia until August 20 and is required to surrender any passports that she may have.
Guo was not there when the order was made at the hearing; thus, he was unable to react right away. Guo is scheduled to appear in court again on March 12. According to the regulator,
“ASIC applied for the travel restraint orders over concerns that Mr Guo may leave the country while it continues its investigation,”
According to Justice Catherine Button’s ruling in the federal court, Guo’s accusations “are very serious.” ASIC claims that Blockchain Global ran the cryptocurrency exchange ACX Exchange from January 2016 to December 2019, and liquidators were appointed to manage the company’s closure on February 11, 2022.
The authorities accused Guo of transferring $1.69 million (2.6 million AUD) to his personal interests from a bank account containing investor cash owned by ACX Exchange.
ASIC additionally claimed that in 2019, Guo moved 21.11 Bitcoin to a private wallet under his control, which is presently valued at over $1.3 million.
ASIC is also looking into claims that Guo and the two directors of Blockchain Global, Xue “Sam” Lee, and Zijang “Ryan” Xu, broke corporate law when running the ACX cryptocurrency exchange.
Lee and Xu are thought to be living abroad. According to Justice Button, Guo is the only person of interest who is still in Australia; thus, his investigation could increase the likelihood of money recovery.
According to the ruling, the ASIC, which began looking into the three last month, had estimated that their probe would take around a year.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Lee on January 29 for his role in a $1.7 billion cryptocurrency scam that ran under several initiatives known as the “HyperFund.”
It was alleged that Lee and his partner, Brenda “Bitcoin Beautee” Chunga, had deceitfully promised investors great returns on cryptocurrency mining and other trendy activities in exchange for various membership packages.
The US is also pursuing charges against Lee for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
