Man sentenced to 10 months in prison for helping to manage illegal currency exchange and cryptocurrency team

PANews reported on June 27 that according to Lianhe Zaobao, knowing that his boss Liu Hanquan was operating an unlicensed currency exchange business, 34-year-old man Xie Jiajie still helped him manage the team and operate the cryptocurrency exchange, handling 430 transactions totaling more than 35 million yuan in just 23 days. The man was arrested during a police raid and sentenced to 10 months in prison. The defendant Xie Jiajie faced two charges of violating the Payment Services Act and one charge of violating the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act. He pleaded guilty to one of the charges earlier, and the remaining charges were handed over to the judge for consideration when sentencing on June 26.

It is understood that Sir Money Changer (SMC) is a licensed family company that provides currency exchange and cross-border remittance services. The directors are Mohammad and his wife. In June 2021, SMC added a business outlet in Geylang. Liu Hanquan proposed to pay 14,000 yuan a month to borrow a license to independently operate the remittance business. He recruited employees on his own, but paid the provident fund in the name of SMC, and repaid the relevant expenses later. Since September of the same year, Liu Hanquan has carried out business, covering cross-border remittances and Tether transactions, but has not reported to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, nor submitted transaction records. The mastermind Liu Hanquan fled to Cambodia after the incident and emptied his cryptocurrency wallet. He is still at large.