Liquidators of the collapsed Torque Buying and selling Ponzi scheme have filed a lawsuit in opposition to CEO Bernard Ong Hock Fong.
In the event you’re questioning why a collapsed Ponzi scheme has liquidators, it’s seemingly the results of Singaporean authorities failing to research Torque Buying and selling.
Torque Buying and selling was an MLM crypto Ponzi that collapsed in February 2021. Shortly after the collapse, I penned an article declaring Torque Buying and selling’s exit-scam hinged on inaction by Singapore’s police.
And that’s precisely what occurred.
As I perceive it, Torque Buying and selling liquidators have been appointed as a part of the company facet of issues.
Torque Buying and selling was included as a shell firm within the BVI. Ong (proper) was the shell firm’s sole shareholder.
Quoting a paywalled The Straits Occasions article, Singapore Regulation Watch reviews;
Singaporean businessman Bernard Ong Hock Fong … has been sued by the liquidators of Torque within the Excessive Courtroom to get better a whole bunch of thousands and thousands value of cryptocurrency that have been misplaced beneath his watch.
Mr Ong has filed an intention to contest the lawsuit.
Liquidators allege Torque Buying and selling scammed buyers out of over $205 million. $137 million of that quantity has been attributed to Singapore primarily based residents.
The overwhelming majority of these funds are believed to have been misappropriated by Ong and his Snap Improvements accomplices (click on to enlarge beneath).
The liquidators’ investigations confirmed that Torque had been utilizing an account registered with Binance.com beneath a Vietnamese worker’s title and private e-mail handle to carry and commerce prospects’ deposits, and this account by no means held greater than US$18.7 million value of buyer deposits at anybody time.
Torque’s different accounts additionally by no means held property of any important worth.
Torque Buying and selling’s liquidators have pegged Ong’s recognized private haul at ~$25 million.
The remaining lacking portion of buyer deposits, nonetheless, stay unaccounted for, regardless of the investigative efforts of the liquidators for the reason that date of the liquidation.
Ong claims he doesn’t know what occurred to the remainder of the cash or the place it’s.
On the time of Torque Buying and selling’s collapse, Ong blamed Vietnam-based CFO Zee Wu.
These lacking buyer deposits have confirmed untraceable and unrecoverable, in mild of the numerous deficiencies in Torque’s monetary and buying and selling record-keeping, famous courtroom paperwork.
Beneath Mr Ong’s watch, “Torque operated in an totally shambolic method” and “didn’t have even essentially the most primary types of company governance or monetary controls in place”, stated the liquidators of their assertion of declare.
The liquidator’s civil lawsuit additionally emphasizes continued inaction by Singapore’s authorities;
(Torque Buying and selling) illegally supplied regulated companies in Singapore, or to Singapore-based prospects, with out the requisite licence or exemptions from the Singapore regulators, and with out implementing any of the chance administration and inner management practices anticipated of an organization of its nature, together with these specified by the Financial Authority of Singapore’s tips.
Additional emphasizing Singaporean authorities’ incompetent dealing with of the case, The Straits Occasions reported that, as of 2021, ~100 investor complaints had been filed with police.
