Crypto exchange founder charged with money laundering and fraud

Taiwanese prosecutors have charged David Pan, the founder of Ace Exchange, a local cryptocurrency trading platform, with criminal charges. According to an official statement, on April 8, they indicted Pan and six other suspects. They charged him with money laundering and fraud, which caused a loss of 340 million New Taiwan dollars or $10.6 million. 

Alleged fraud method and property seizures

Taipei City police  arrested Pan and 14 other people thought to be related to the case in January following raids on a number of locations, including Ace’s headquarters. They said Pan was one of the people involved in the operation of the fraudulent cryptocurrency wallet service “Alfred,” also known as “Afu wallet,” and its affiliated crypto card.

In turn, the prosecutors claim that the persons in question initiated the high-demand scam method from the last century offline: the service of luring high investments with an even higher potential revenue by the promise .The investors who were lured and defrauded into providing money through payments were then unable to pull their assets out or discovered that their accounts had been frozen. In addition, the Taiwan court ordered property seizures against those accused, with a volume of some confiscated assets being linked to a certain minimum of 3.5 million TWD, which averages out to approximately $110,000.

Ace exchange responds

Responding to the charges Ace Exchange posted a statement. The firm stressed that the wallet product was created by a third-party team endorsed by ex-director Pan, not a product or service of Ace Exchange. It said that it was “working with local regulators” and provided the exchange the following statement: “Please feel confident that trading through Pingtung International Exchange is still typical, working and controlling, and the user’s assets are safe, with no effect on deposit and extraction flows for all cryptocurrencies and New Taiwan dollars”.