Taiwan police arrests two in Hong Kong-based MyCoin scam

MyCoin, a Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange, was exposed as a likely multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme that led to its shutdown earlier this year. The fraud is expected to have cost investors $8.1 million, as estimated by Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau.

According to WantChinaTimes, Taiwan police on Aug. 20 announced that they had arrested two suspects who scammed investors out of NT$1 billion (US$30.6 million), namely, 47 year old Chen Yun-fei and 39 year old Lu Kuan-wei, who was the former president of the Taoyuan Junior Chamber of Commerce.

Since March, many cases of fraud have been reported by Taiwan-based users of Mycoin, the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Taipei said. Chen and Lu reportedly held several events where they persuaded investors to spend NT$1.62 million (US$49,600) for 90 bitcoins and an account with Mycoin's parent which would distribute 0.63 of a bitcoin every day for a total value of NT$11,000 (US$337). The investors were told that their investment would be returned to them after just four and a half months.

The bureau estimated that the total amount that investors lost in the scheme exceeds NT$600 million (US$18.3 million), the report said.