• Thai police arrested Chinese language nationwide Liang Ai-Bing in Bangkok for his alleged function within the FINTOCH DeFi scheme.
  • FINTOCH was a Ponzi that faked ties to Morgan Stanley and used a false CEO, in the end shifting about $31.6 million USDT from person accounts and blocking withdrawals in Might 2023.
  • Liang faces extradition to China, the place he and 4 others had been allegedly concerned within the scheme that focused practically 100 victims.

Thai police have arrested Liang Ai-Bing, a Chinese nationwide, in Bangkok’s Wang Thonglang district for his alleged function within the “FINTOCH” DeFi scheme that focused practically 100 victims in China. 

FINTOCH was a DeFi-branded Ponzi that posed as “Morgan DF Fintoch,” falsely implying ties to Morgan Stanley and fronting a pretend CEO utilizing an actor’s picture. It drew deposits with “secure” excessive yields, a slick app, and referral rewards, whereas holding centralised management over person funds and providing little transparency into how returns had been generated. 

Singapore’s MAS positioned the undertaking on its investor alert record in early Might 2023. That very same month, investigators and on-chain analysts reported an exit of roughly 31.6 million USDT that was moved from BSC to a number of addresses on Tron and Ethereum and customers had been blocked from withdrawing, implying losses close to AU$49.0 million. 

The scheme’s operators allegedly spanned 5 individuals named by Chinese language authorities, with arrests and prices following in China and Thailand.

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Liang Arrested In Luxurious Penthouse

In accordance with the report, Liang was detained at an upscale three-story penthouse he had rented since late 2024 for about US$4,645 (AU$7,200) per 30 days.

Chinese language authorities beforehand named 4 different suspects: Al Qing-Hua, Wu Jiang-Yan, Tang Zhen-Que, and Zuo Lai-Jun. Zuo was arrested in China and later launched on bail; the others allegedly fled. FINTOCH additionally offered a pretend CEO, ‘Bob Lambert,’ whose picture really depicted actor Mike Provenzano.

Regardless of an early Might 2023 warning from Singapore’s MAS, the platform continued to attract deposits earlier than its collapse. Bug-bounty agency Immunefi later listed FINTOCH’s rug-pull among the many main incidents that drove a 63% year-over-year soar in crypto losses in Q2 2023.

Thai authorities stated Liang additionally faces prices for unlawful firearm possession and illegal entry. Extradition proceedings to China are underway.

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