On 17 August 2023, a Dutch national and three Chinese nationals aged between 40 and 60 were charged in court in relation to their involvement in A&A Blockchain Technology Innovation Pte Ltd (“A&A Blockchain”). They are Dutch national Yang Bin (A&A Blockchain’s Chairman at the material time), Lu Huangbin (A&A Blockchain’s Chief Executive Officer at the material time), Wang Xinghong (A&A Blockchain’s Chief Technology Officer at the material time), and Chen Wei (a director of A&A Blockchain at the material time).

Each of the four accused persons were charged with the following offences:

1. 12 counts of engaging in a conspiracy to cheat under Section 420 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code, involving a total sum of over $1.8 million.
2. 1 count of consenting to A&A Blockchain carrying on a business of providing payment services without a license under Section 5(1) read with Section 90(2) of the Payment Services Act 2019.

Between May 2021 and February 2022, A&A Blockchain offered a cryptocurrency mining investment scheme which promised investors a fixed daily return of 0.5%. In relation to the cheating charges, the accused persons had allegedly conspired to induce 12 persons into investing with A&A Blockchain by falsely representing that the company owned a large number of machines to mine cryptocurrency.

Between August 2021 and February 2022, A&A Blockchain also operated a cryptocurrency exchange known as “AAEX” which purportedly offered the trading of several cryptocurrencies. A&A Blockchain did not possess a licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to carry on a business of providing payment services in Singapore.

Any person convicted of a cheating offence under Section 420 read with Section 109 of the Penal Codewill face a fine and/or a jail term not exceeding ten years. Of the 12 cheating charges, ten are amalgamated charges punishable pursuant to Section 124(8)(a)(ii) Criminal Procedure Code 2010. A person convicted of an amalgamated charge read with Section 124(8)(a)(ii) of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 would be liable to two times the amount of punishment to which that person would otherwise have been liable for one incident of the offence.

Any person found guilty of providing payment services without a licence will face a jail term not exceeding three years and/or a fine of up to S$125,000.