- The JPEX crypto exchange disappeared last year with an estimated $200 million in deposits.
- Police say the site used promoters to wrangle crypto investors.
- The authorities have still not identified who ran JPEX.
In a move that escalates the probe into one of Hong Kong’s most notorious rogue crypto exchanges, Interpol, the international police agency, issued two red notices on Thursday for promoters Ching-Kit Wong and Tsun-Ting Mok.
Wong, 30, who is also known as “Coin Young Master,” is wanted for one count of fraud and two counts of theft.
Mok is charged with two counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence.
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 were not charged.
More than 2,600 victims have come forward with combined losses of HK$1.6 billion, or US$200 million.
73 arrests
The red notices, which call on Interpol’s 196 member nations to locate and arrest their targets, doesn’t cite JPEX as a reason for the warrants.
DL News was unable to reach Wong and Mok for comment. The Coin Young Master Youtube account is inactive and the Instagram account has been set to private.
At least 73 people have been arrested in the course of the police investigation but Hong Kong police have not charged anyone. The authorities have not identified who is behind JPEX.
At the same time, investors have filed a civil suit seeking to recover lost deposits.
But it’s not the first time the two men have been in trouble with the law. Wong, a former swimming instructor, was sentenced to community service in 2012 for stealing a phone at a pool. By 2018, he had reinvented himself as a Lamborghini-driving crypto promoter.
Cash from a rooftop
In December that year, Wong was arrested for disorderly conduct in a public place after throwing thousands of dollars in cash from a rooftop in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po neighbourhood.
The shower of hundred dollar banknotes caused chaos on the street below as people fought to retrieve them.
He received a suspended sentence of 10 days imprisonment. Local media dubbed him the “Bitcoin playboy.”
Bogus currency
In 2019, Wong and Mok, 26, — who worked as his assistant — promoted a bogus virtual currency mining machine, according to police.
Following their arrest, police said they allegedly defrauded 18 people of some HK$3 million. They were later released on bail.
Leo Weese, the president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, criticised Wong after the Sham Shui Po incident.
Weese cast doubt on whether Wong was a Bitcoin millionaire on X, stating that he was well known in the community for running a “pyramid-like scheme”.
“Six years and a couple of scams later, Wong Ching-kit has an Interpol red notice in his name and appears to be no longer in Hong Kong,” Weese tweeted on July 25.
Callan Quinn is DL News’ Hong Kong correspondent. Contact her at callan@dlnews.com.
