Hong Kong court backs 56-month scam sentence as crypto heat grows

A syndicate recruiter has had his 56-month prison sentence confirmed by Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal in a fraud economy that INTERPOL estimates to have resulted in global losses of $442 billion in 2025. The flow of those illegal funds is being increasingly shifted to cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoins.

The case around crypto reveals a larger issue. Chainalysis reported that no less than $14 billion was sent to fraud-related crypto wallets last year, with the number likely to amount to over $17 billion as scam wallets are uncovered. Stolen money is usually converted and laundered through the technology used by honest customers, which turns laundering related to scams into a very serious compliance headache for the bodies controlling crypto exchanges.

A guilty plea that put trafficking on the sentencing scale

According to reports, the appellant is Ma Che-hou, aged 32, who confessed to being involved in a conspiracy to defraud and money laundering in 2021 and 2022. The prosecutors stated that he convinced five men aged 20 to 32 by suggesting jobs with good pay, business chances, or online romance. Eventually, the men ended up in Southeast Asia, and some of them ended up in captivity in KK Park of Myanmar and were tortured, including electric shocks.

… Continue reading the full article at the original source below.