Man behind crypto Ponzi scheme where victims lost $1.lm gets jail, fine

A mastermind of an elaborate scam ran a firm offering cryptocurrency investment schemes, in which 12 investors parted with more than $1.8 million in total.

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

In reality, the company, identified as A&A Blockchain Innovation, was operating a Ponzi scheme with no actual profit-generating business, and some investors were paid "returns" with money from the other investors.

Multiple investors did not receive such "returns" and lost a total of around $1.1 million.

On Aug 26, Dutch national Yang Bin, who operated A&A without a valid work pass and recruited foreigners to work for it without similar documents, was sentenced to six years' jail and a fine of $16,000.

He will spend an additional 40 days behind bars if he fails to fork out the fine amount.

Yang, who has made no restitution, had pleaded guilty to six cheating charges and two charges relating to the employment of foreigners. Eleven other charges were considered during sentencing.

On Aug 26, Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Shiau Yin told the court that between May 2021 and February 2022, A&A attracted investments from more than 700 parties in Singapore, amounting to around $6.7 million.

Court documents did not disclose if these 700 investors were linked to Yang's cheating offences.