Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
3AC’s Kyle Davies throw creditors under the bus, again
Kyle Davies, co-founder of bankrupt Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), has washed his hands of responsibility for the collapse of their relevant firms. On a March 19 episode of the Unchained Podcast, Davies reiterated his lack of remorse for his involvement in the collapse of 3AC, which is facing $3.3 billion in creditors’ claims:
“Am I sorry for a company going bankrupt? No. Like, companies go bankrupt all the time,” said Davies. “Maybe, at a minimum, we could tell the next Three Arrows how to do things better when they go bankrupt.”
Despite the issuance of a Singaporean arrest warrant for contempt of court, Davies has since stated that he, a Singaporean national, has no intent to return to the city-state to serve jail time and currently “bounces around between Europe and Asia.” Regular readers of Asia Express will be interested to note that Davies made no mention of returning to the Middle East, where his infamous Dubai chicken restaurant is located.
Although Davies is currently on the run, it appears that his ex-3AC entrepreneurial ventures with fellow co-founder Su Zhu did not go well. After 3AC Ventures last year, the firm seems to have gone offline at the time of publication. OPNX, a derivatives exchange founded by Davies and Zhu in April 2023, also shut down earlier this year.
British national found guilty of laundering $6 billion for Chinese crypto scam
Jian Wen, a 42 year old British woman, has been found guilty by a London jury of laundering $6 billion in Bitcoin for Zhimin Qian, Chinese fugitive on the run for orchestrating an investment fraud in mainland China.
According to a March 20 Bloomberg report, Qian allegedly embezzled funds from over 130,000 investors through 10 investment vehicles, converted the money into Bitcoin, and fled to the U.K. in 2017, where she met Wen.
At the time, Wen worked at a fast food takeaway in east London but quickly transformed into living a luxurious lifestyle within a matter of weeks. In 2018, London police seized over 61,000 Bitcoin, now worth $4.0 billion, in a home raid where two women were living at the time.
The money laundering scam was only uncovered when Wen attempted to purchase a luxurious mansion in London with the stolen funds but could not explain the source of the wealth, drawing attention from authorities. Qian has since fled Britain while Wen has denied all allegations despite the guilty verdict. Currently, there is no extradition agreement between the U.K. and China.
Hong Kong public company cashes out $14.4 million in crypto
Hong Kong audio and video equipment manufacturer Yuxing Infotech has cashed out 110 Bitcoin (BTC) and 2,012 Ethereum for approximately $14 million in stablecoins. As per the March 21 announcement, the swap was conducted through institutional crypto exchange OSL, with Yuxing’s profits totaling $6.4 million.
“Taking into account the current cryptocurrency market, the board believes that now is an appropriate time for the Yuxing Infotech Group to liquidate its investment,” the firm said in a statement.
Although Yuxing’s core business lies in manufacturing and internet data centers, the company has been avidly mining Bitcoin, and was mining Ethereum before the Merge upgrade. In 2022, Yuxing purchased 6,832 Bitmain T17E Bitcoin miners for HKD $60 million ($7.67 million). During Q3 2023, the company reported a net loss of $19.5 million, up 23.38% from last year.
Do Kwon to be deported to South Korea this week
Former Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon, who played a critical role in the $40 billion implosion of the Terra Luna ecosystem in 2022, will be extradited from Montenegro to South Korea on March 24.
According to local news outlet Hankook Ilbo, in the face of competing extradition requests between the U.S. and South Korea, the Montenegrin Court of Appeal ruled that Kwon will be extradited to South Korea as its application arrived first.
Since there is no direct flight, Korean prosecutors will allow repatriation to go through a third country and execute the arrest warrant for Kwon immediately upon his boarding on a Korean national plane.
Once repatriated, Kwon faces criminal fraud charges and possible civil restitution claims from more than 200,000 South Korean investors who lost money in the Terra Luna implosion. Kwon’s associate, Han Chang-Joon, was extradited to South Korea last month. The two served four months in a Montenegrin prison for attempting to travel with forged documents.
South Korea’s Ministry of Science will allocate 50 billion won ($37.5 million) to create a national metaverse fund that supports small and medium-sized businesses and venture companies. Local news agency News 1 Korea reported the fund will focus on investing in prominent projects specializing in the intersection of metaverse, generative AI, and virtual reality.
“We hope that the Metaverse Fund’s aggressive financial support will expand growth opportunities and further lead to entry into the global market,” Hwang Gyu-cheol, Software Policy Director at the Ministry of Science.
Read also
The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2030, over 700 cities worldwide will have their footprint in the metaverse. Currently, the City of Seoul has committed $180 million to develop its metaverse infrastructure. Users can currently create avatars, visit historical landmarks, and engage in public games within the Seoul metaverse.
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Zhiyuan Sun
Zhiyuan Sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph focusing on technology-related news. He has several years of experience writing for major financial media outlets such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.
