Crypto Exchange AAX’s 2 Executives Are Arrested In Hong Kong

On December 23, police detained Thor Chan, the company’s founder, and Liang Haoming, the company’s former CEO.

According to local media sources, the Hong Kong police detained two executives of the cryptocurrency exchange AAX on charges of fraud and misrepresenting the police.

On December 23, police detained former AAX CEO Thor Chan and Weigao Capital CEO Liang Haoming. Authorities in the area charged them with using “system maintenance” as a justification to prevent consumers from withdrawing assets when there were liquidity problems.

Additionally, one of the executives is accused of intentionally deceiving law authorities by lying to them about the timing of his activities while working for the firm.

The executive’s residences and two AAX bank accounts have all been blocked. Police estimate that a third executive travelled abroad with an AAX wallet and private keys that contained about $30 million in digital assets. The police took his possessions in Hong Kong. Hong Kong authorities are actively collaborating with international investigators to trace the cash as part of the inquiry.

Since mid-November, the Hong Kong-based site has been down for “system maintenance,” preventing 2 million registered customers from accessing their money. Since then, victims in China, Taiwan, Italy, and France have reported more than 337 incidents to the local authorities.

On November 14, AAX stopped accepting withdrawals, claiming a bug in the exchange’s system update. The firm reassured its users that, contrary to reports, the withdrawal freeze had nothing to do with the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The vice president of worldwide marketing and communications for AAX made his departure known a few weeks later. Ben Caselin announced his release from the cryptocurrency exchange on Twitter, explaining that his ideas were rejected despite his attempts to advance the community. He called his position in communications “hollow.”

Users in Nigeria started assaulting former staff members of the cryptocurrency exchange’s Lagos branch after AAX’s activities were shut down.