Macau’s Judiciary Police have detained a local man for his involvement in a cryptocurrency subscription allegedly being falsely promoted by Lantai Digital Application Technology.
In a media briefing on Friday, a Judiciary Police spokesman confirmed that the man – a 37-year-old named only as Hong – was linked to a group said to have falsely provided information designed to convince people to subscribe to the cryptocurrency.
It follows a press conference held by Lantai Digital Application Technology last Tuesday in which the company claimed to be working with a number of Macau junket operators. Many of those operators officially denied any involvement.
Speaking to media on Friday, Judiciary Police spokesman Lei Hon Nei confirmed that “we have not found any Macau junkets that have worked with [Lantai Digital Application Technology] on the development of its cryptocurrency.”
The company had been looking to issue two billion subscriptions for a total realization of HK$6 billion.
The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) has also issued an official warning over potential fraud and criminal activities related to recent cryptocurrency subscription announcements.
In a statement published on its website, the AMCM said it “warns residents in general about the need to be careful about any frauds that may exist or with the possibility of being exploited for the practice of any criminal activity, since bitcoin is a ‘virtual commodity’ – that is, it is neither a legal currency nor a financial instrument.
“The AMCM once again emphasizes the possible breach of the provisions of the Legal Framework of the Financial System if an institution provides financial services subject to AMCM supervision by any means such as currency conversion, cross-border fund transfers or platform provision where financial transactions are traded, which have not been duly authorized.
“AMCM has officially issued a notice to all banks and payment institutions that they will not participate in or provide, directly or indirectly, any financial services related to the virtual currency, including financial services where the virtual merchandise is adopted as the payment currency. In addition, the AMCM has repeatedly alerted, through the media, residents in general to the need to be careful about the risks that such practices involve.”
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