Jail, fine for 'key cog' in crypto scam in which 12 investors lost $1.1m

He was the chief executive of a firm that offered investment schemes, claiming to have 300,000 physical mining machines capable of generating revenue by mining cryptocurrencies.

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

But this turned out to be a hoax. Lu Huangbin's firm, A&A Blockchain Technology Innovation, was in fact running a Ponzi scheme.

According to his charges, the company induced 12 investors to part with more than $1.8 million in total. They later suffered losses totaling about $1.1 million.

On May 6, the 61-year-old Chinese national was sentenced to 4 1/2 years' jail and a fine of $6,000. Lu, who has made no restitution, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including six counts of cheating.

Nine other charges were considered during his sentencing.

Lu was the last person linked to the case to be dealt with in court. Three others were earlier handed jail sentences.

One of them, Dutch national Yang Bin, then 61, was sentenced to six years' jail and a fine of $16,000 in August 2024.