Joseph Lam Chok, a prominent social media influencer and lawyer in Hong Kong, has been arrested by local police on suspicion of promoting an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform, JPEX.
Local newspaper South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong police arrested Lam Chok at his office in the city at around 11 a.m. local time today. The officers also seized several boxes of “evidence,” including a large stock of banknotes.
Lam Chok stands accused of actively encouraging individuals to open accounts on JPEX, where they could exchange their funds for cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, he purportedly represented himself as a partner of the crypto exchange platform, even though he held no actual shares in the company.
The arrest occurred as part of an ongoing investigation into the activities of JPEX, which has been under scrutiny by the domestic authorities.
Hong Kong’s Police Commissioner, Siu Chak-yi, revealed that the police received a report from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) about concerns about potential misconduct related to JPEX.
In addition to the SFC’s report, the police have received over 83 JPEX-related reports from the public, and the value of the virtual assets involved is an estimated HK$34 million, according to the South China Morning Post.
Meanwhile, just hours before Lam Chok’s arrest, JPEX announced the suspension of all trading activities. According to the exchange, this decision was in response to the public notice issued by the SFC on September 13, 2023, which warned the public against engaging with JPEX.
“Due to the unfair treatment by relevant institutions in Hong Kong towards JPEX, a cryptocurrency trading platform, and a series of negative news, our partnered third-party market makers have maliciously frozen funds. They demanded more information from the platform for negotiation, restricting our liquidity and significantly increasing our daily operating costs, leading to operational difficulties,”
the crypto exchange wrote in a blog post published yesterday, Sunday, September 17, 2023.
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