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Hong Kong’s police and its securities watchdog are setting up a high-level working group to crack down on illegal cryptocurrency activities following the city’s $157 million suspected fraud at crypto exchange JPEX.
The police and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said the group would facilitate the exchange of information concerning suspicious activities and breaches within crypto trading platforms, and aims to implement a mechanism for assessing the risks associated with suspicious crypto platforms.
“The implementation of the new platform between the Police and the SFC is instrumental to fast-tracking vital intelligence exchange and joint collaboration in responses to the challenges arising from Virtual Asset Trading Platforms, so as to better protect the general public of Hong Kong,” said Eve Chung, assistant commissioner of police for crime, in a statement.
The establishment of the working group follows a high-level meeting between the two parties on September 28 that also included representatives from the Commercial Crime Bureau, Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, Financial Intelligence and Investigations Bureau, Enforcement Division, and Intermediaries Division.
Hong Kong’s securities regulator and police force set up a task force to assist with the detection of suspicious activity at crypto exchanges, a step that follows the JPEX blowup https://t.co/yLVZovwgbq
— Bloomberg (@business) October 5, 2023
A television actor and another man were the latest to be detained in connection with the JPEX scandal, bringing total arrests to 20, local media reported. More than 2,500 victims have reported losses of HK$1.5 billion ($157 million).
JPEX announced a plan to transition its platform to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), which it said had the support of 68% of its voters following a referendum.
The program allows users to exchange their assets, which are currently frozen, for dividends as DAO Stakeholders, with a one-to-one exchange rate. After one year, JPEX provides an option to buy back the assets at 30% of the conversion price, and after two years at full price, the statement said.
An anonmymous JPEX user told the South China Morning Post that their assets were converted without permission or prior notice, adding that assets couldn’t be withdrawn.
“Given the unknown price and the impossibility of withdrawal, our assets have now become just waste paper,” the user said.
The JPEX scandal began to unfold on September 13, when the SFC named and shamed the platform for operating without a license in Hong Kong.
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