Duo bring first civil lawsuit against JPEX to recover HK$1.85m

Two citizens have brought a civil action against the JPEX cryptocurrency platform in relation to the alleged fraud, trying to recover about 240,000 units of Tether, equivalent to about HK$1.85 million. 

This marked the very first civil lawsuit since the alleged fraud was unveiled nine months ago. 

The writ was filed to the District Court on Monday by plaintiffs Chan Wing-yan and Herbert Lee Sun-him. 

The first six defendants are Australia-listed JP-EX Crypto Asset Platform Pty Ltd, Hong Kong-listed WEB3.0 Technical Support Ltd, three holders of three blockchain wallet addresses, and Felix Chiu King-yin, general manager of over-the-counter (OTC) virtual money changer Coingaroo. 

The seventh defendant is listed as anyone who assisted or participated in transferring the duo’s assets to the above-mentioned six. 

As of April 18, police received reports from 2,636 victims involving about HK$1.6 billion. A total of 72 people were arrested and some HK$228 million has been frozen. 

Speaking on Tuesday, election committee constituency lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong said this civil action is the cornerstone of the case and believes there will be more lawsuits brought against the JPEX platform. 

Ng added that he is currently communicating with several hundreds of victims and they are speculating the results of this lawsuit, with about 10 of them also hoping to sue JPEX. 

He noted that for investors the focus is whether the defendants can repay them after winning the trial and called on law enforcement to step up their investigations.