Finfluencers, free ice cream and crypto – JPEX scandal grips Asia

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Last Updated on 6 November 2023 by CryptoTips.eu

More than 2,000 complaints, a billion (in Hong Kong dollars) in losses and the arrest of several Asian financial influencers (also called ‘finfluencers’), that in a nutshell is the JPEX scandal that the Hong Kong police is currently investigating. The case has repercussions in China and Japan and could well become the biggest fraud case ever for Hong Kong.

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Personnel and marketing

JPEX introduced itself as a crypto platform where Asians from different countries could trade commission-free. The original headquarters was registered in Dubai, but the actual headquarters was marketed as being in Hong Kong.

The company also had offices in Tokyo, Beijing and Sydney, so at first glance it seemed to be in pretty good shape. However, from the start, JPEX managed to spend some 40 million Hong Kong dollars on marketing in the city’s metro, which immediately made it extremely popular among young people.

The promotion that offered free ice cream if you managed to tag a photo of yourself with the JPEX logo on Instagram also became very popular and increased brand awareness. Just like FTX in 2021 and 2022 in America, JPEX seemed to grow very quickly, but in Asia.

The help of many well-known Asian financial influencers, known there as ‘finfluencers’, made the business even more popular with Gen-Z Asians.

September

However, since the beginning of September, the problems have piled up and complaints about the company have started pouring in. The money turned out to have been siphoned off to various accounts at Binance and Coinbase. None of the JPEX customers could get access to their accounts and further investigation by local journalists revealed several problems.

The man identified by the JPEX website as ‘Technical Support’ turned out to be a 22-year-old unemployed person from Shanghai. A 52-year-old security officer from Canberra was named by the website as the Managing Director of the department in Australia and so on. At this time it is still not clear who really worked for the company.

Finfluencers

The influencers who had helped promote the business were arrested by local authorities.

This week, a news channel in Hong Kong showed live the arrest of Joseph Lam, the man who promoted himself on Instagram as Hong Kong’s “Trolling King”.

In his posts, Joseph explained to his followers how crypto profits could help them buy a house and increase their social influence.

Chan Yee, a YouTube personality with 200,000 subscribers, has also been arrested.

Over in Malaysia, a well-known actress named Jacquelin Ch’ng promised to cooperate with the investigation in exchange for a reduced sentence.

The scandal still needs to be investigated further, but appears to have caused thousands of (financial) victims in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.

ezthaiphoto / Depositphotos.com

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]
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