Police arrest crypto influencer for connection with JPEX crypto exchange

Article Reading Time:
2 minutes.

Hong Kong police arrestedcryptocurrency influencer Joseph Lam, who previously worked as a lawyer, for his alleged connection to the JPEX crypto exchange, which has received many complaints from clients.

According to local media, Hong Kong policeconducted a search of Joseph Lam's office, seizing evidence, including several banknotes, and then arresting the suspect. Over the weekend, Lam told his 190,000 Instagram followers that he had contacted police on Friday for information about the JPEX crypto exchange. The influencer urged affected users to call the police hotline to report their losses.

The police said that she had already receivedat least 83 complaints related to JPEX. The total losses of users are estimated at $4.3 million. Police began to investigate the activities of JPEX after warnings from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Last week, the regulator warned that the trading platform was making false and misleading statements on social media about obtaining a license to allow the exchange to trade virtual assets in Hong Kong.

Following this, JPEX suspended someoperations and increased the withdrawal fee to $999 due to a lack of liquidity. JPEX blamed third-party market makers for “deliberately freezing funds.”

Last year, Hong Kong authorities officiallydeclared support for projects working with crypto-assets, but they are required to be registered with the regulator. Thus, the Seychelles crypto exchange OKX is already in the final stages of obtaining a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in Hong Kong, and the Swiss cryptocurrency bank SEBA has received a preliminary license from the Hong Kong regulator.