Chen Wei, 51, was involved in a cryptocurrency scam that deceived investors into parting with over S$1.8 million. The scheme falsely claimed it was based on cryptocurrency mining, when in fact, it was a Ponzi scheme.
SINGAPORE — A 51-year-old man, Chen Wei, was sentenced to four years in jail and fined S$6,000 on Wednesday (Sept 11) for his role in a large-scale Ponzi scheme that tricked investors into believing they were investing in cryptocurrency mining. Chen had misled more than 700 investors in Singapore, convincing them to invest over S$1.8 million in what turned out to be a fraudulent scheme.
Chen, a Chinese national, had worked as a director at A&A Blockchain Technology Innovation, a company that falsely claimed to operate a cryptocurrency mining operation in China. A&A promised investors daily returns of 0.5% by mining popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, the company did not actually own the 300,000 mining machines it claimed were based in Yunnan, China. Instead, A&A was running a Ponzi scheme, using funds from new investors to pay earlier ones, creating the illusion of profitability.
Chen, who also served as the personal assistant to A&A’s chairman, Yang Bin, had access to the company’s backend systems, allowing him to facilitate withdrawals for investors, further maintaining the illusion that their investments were legitimate. The app created by A&A allowed investors to purchase “tokens” and track their supposed daily earnings, which helped sustain the fraud.
Between May 2021 and February 2022, A&A collected approximately S$6.7 million from over 700 Singaporean investors. Of this, S$1.1 million was lost, while some investors did receive returns from the scheme’s funds, which came from later investors.
Chen was arrested in February 2022 and released on bail, only to be rearrested in August 2023. The scam’s mastermind, Yang Bin, a 61-year-old Dutch national, had already been sentenced to six years in jail and fined S$16,000. Another accomplice, Wang Xinghong, who served as A&A’s chief technological officer, was sentenced to five years in prison.
For his crimes, Chen pleaded guilty to six counts of cheating and one count of working without a valid permit. An additional eight charges were considered in his sentencing. The court backdated his sentence to his arrest date of August 16, 2023.
Under Singapore law, Chen could have faced up to 10 years in jail for each count of cheating and additional penalties for working without a valid permit, which carries a maximum two-year sentence or a fine of up to S$20,000, or both.
