SINGAPORE – Three men engaged in a conspiracy in which cryptocurrencies worth over US$6.9 million (S$8.8 million) were stolen from the crypto wallet of trading platform SafeX Virtual Asset Exchange.
One of the men, Zhang Xinghua, laundered part of their ill-gotten gains by using a cryptocurrency mixer – a service that pools together many users’ cryptocurrencies to hide the sources and ownership of the funds.
The prosecution said Zhang would have gained more than US$886,000 in cryptocurrencies if not for the timely intervention of the police.
On March 11, the 38-year-old Chinese national was sentenced to two years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to one count each of being part of a conspiracy to misuse a computer system and dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct.
Though his wife, he made restitution of 0.890262 Bitcoin – worth more than US$95,000 – to a cryptocurrency wallet address provided by the director of a company called DLT, which is SafeX’s operator, in February.
To date, the Singapore Police Force has seized and/or frozen about US$2.1 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
Around US$4.8 million in cryptocurrencies remain beyond its reach as they are in private wallets and wallets maintained by virtual asset service providers located outside of Singapore’s jurisdiction.
One of Zhang’s alleged accomplices is Singaporean Dai Yong, 36, whose case in pending.
Court documents stated that the third man, Singapore permanent resident Chen Chong Xin, 36, is still at large.
Deputy public prosecutors Matthew Choo and Gabriel Gan told the court the trio used to work for a company called King Coder.
It managed various platforms and accounts used in the operations of DTL’s businesses, including SafeX.
