Jail for ‘key cog’ in cryptocurrency scam in which investors in Singapore lost $1.1m

SINGAPORE – 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.

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 totalling about $1.1 million.

On May 6, the 61-year-old Chinese national was sentenced to 4½ 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.

At the time of the offences, Yang was the chairman of A&A Blockchain Technology Innovation and was the mastermind of the scam.

Another man, Chinese national Wang Xinghong, then 40, was sentenced to five years’ jail on Aug 6, 2024. He was the firm’s chief technological officer.

A third Chinese national, Chen Wei, then 43, was a director at the company and also Yang’s personal assistant. He was sentenced to four years’ jail and a fine of $6,000 in September 2024.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Shiau Yin told the court on May 6 that Lu was a “key cog” in the scam linked to the firm, which was incorporated on April 20, 2021.

Between May that year and February 2022, it offered a scheme to investors in Singapore.

Known as the A&A Chain Mining Scheme, the company promised investors a fixed daily return of 0.5 per cent on their investments, purportedly generated through the mining of cryptocurrencies.

In its marketing materials – including presentation slides and promotional videos – the company claimed to have an agreement with Yunnan Shun Ai Yun Xun Investment Holdings to acquire 70 per cent ownership of 300,000 mining machines in China.

These machines were said to be able to mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, the firm did not enter into any such agreement with Yunnan Shun Ai Yun Xun Investment Holdings.

DPP Wong said: “In fact, (A&A Blockchain Technology Innovation) did not mine cryptocurrency to generate revenue. Instead, (it) operated a money circulation or ‘Ponzi’ scheme, using monies from later investors to pay returns owed to earlier investors.”

Lu and his family had invested around US$57,000 (S$73,600) into the scheme and received some US$136,000 in returns.

He did not have a valid work pass in Singapore when he worked as the firm’s chief executive.

The prosecutor also said that between May 2021 and February 2022, the company attracted investments from over 700 investors in Singapore, amounting to around $6.7 million.

Court documents did not disclose if these investors were linked to Lu’s cheating offences.

The documents also did not state how the offences came to light, but all four men were charged in 2023.

• Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.

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