Hong Kong crypto fraud linked to Sydney unit
JP-EX Crypto Asset Platform lists its primary business address as an apartment building in North Ryde. Another address in Sydney’s inner south, previously billed as JPEX Metaverse Lab, appears to be empty. This building was used to film several marketing videos with Mr Hartmann, one of the few names publicly associated with the business.
A JPEX marketing video with Jeremiah Hartmann
In one of videos – widely circulated on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, and WeChat, a Chinese chat app – Mr Hartmann explains the labs were designed to attract Australian students exploring the metaverse.
In the videos, Mr Hartmann is referred to as a “marketing manager”. He told the Financial Review that he was never an employee and that the job title was an error. Mr Hartmann, who recently returned from a Singapore-based crypto convention as a representative for JPEX, said he has received angry messages from customers demanding their money back.
Several of the videos associated with JPEX have been deleted from Mr Hartmann’s promotional YouTube page.
Like many crypto exchanges operating out of South-East Asia, JPEX has sponsored several Australian sports teams, including the Western United Football Club and the Western Sydney Wanderers. According to the Wanderers, their partnership ended in June.
The JPEX investigation marks the first test of Hong Kong’s new licensing regime that was rolled out in June which allows retail trading by licensed exchanges. The allegations against JPEX also include that the exchange was charging significant fees to withdraw funds. More than $HK60 million in assets, including $HK40 million in real estate, have been frozen.
“JPEX purports to be a virtual asset trading platform and is unregulated, and has been on the SFC’s radar since March 2022 when the SFC began making inquiries into its suspected false and misleading representations and unlicensed activities,” the Hong Kong regulator said late last month.
In response, JPEX said: “We have always hoped to hold rational consultations and communications with the SFC, but regrettably, our repeated efforts to seek guidance and ask questions have often been dismissed or sidestepped with official rhetoric by the SFC.”
The Hong Kong police are working with Interpol to find JPEX executives. On Friday, four men described as being “relatively close to the core” of the company, were arrested. That took the total arrested to 18.
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