Liquidators say “unexplained withdrawal transactions” have been identified. Photo / 123rf
Customers of failed Auckland crypto exchange Dasset, where some $6.3 million in deposits are missing, have had their worst fears confirmed in the liquidators’ six-monthly report, released overnight.
David Ruscoe and Russell Moore (both of
Grant Thornton) say they have “identified a number of unexplained withdrawal transactions” to offshore exchanges.
“These transactions have been traced using blockchain analytics tools to several offshore and decentralised virtual asset service providers who mostly do not have a New Zealand presence.
“This includes several centralised and decentralised exchanges that allow derivative trading. These transactions which are valued at millions of dollars appear to be responsible for the large deficit in assets.”
Beyond a brief communication when first appointed, the liquidators have not been able to reach Dasset chief executive Stephen Macaskill, whose whereabouts are unknown – including whether the New York-raised crypto entrepreneur had skipped NZ.
This morning, Moore said they had still not been able to make contact with Macaskill, despite numerous attempts.
Liquidators contacted law enforcement after their initial assessment.
On February 25, the Serious Fraud Office confirmed it had opened an investigation. The SFO’s effort is being supported by the Financial Markets Authority, which has been collecting information from Dasset customers (both agencies said they could not comment while the investigation was underway).
The liquidators said their own investigations into Dasset, its directors and related parties continue. “If any insolvent transactions or breaches of legislation have occurred, we will take appropriate action where it has the potential to increase the recovery available to creditors and report where required to the relevant authorities.”
There have been three claims from employees totalling $35,533 and a preferential claim from the Inland Revenue for PAYE and GST totalling $150,932.
At this stage, it is unknown if there will be any funds to pay preferential creditors.
To date, they received five unsecured creditors’ claims totalling $305,458.
The liquidators are still trying to reconcile balances for some 5000 Dasset customers.
In their first report on Dasset, released on August 21, Ruscoe and Moore said at least $6.3m in cryptocurrency was unaccounted for – the difference between what Dasset customers thought they had in their digital wallets and the digital assets actually on hand.
Although Dasset promoted that it was on the Financial Service Providers Register and subject to the register’s disputes provider, the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (Ifso), the scheme did not have the teeth to pursue customers’ complaints from May onwards about being unable to access accounts or reach Dasset staff.
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated financial product in New Zealand.
Dasset was dropped from Ifso in July 2023 for failing to respond to customer complaints.
The FMA has sent questionnaires to Dasset customers – who ranged from an Auckland mother of two who lost access to her life savings of $40,000 to an investment banking veteran who lost millions.
Investor and former director Fran Strajnar earlier told the Herald he was also trying to locate Macaskill.
Strajnar, a member of the Reserve Bank’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Forum, quit as a director in May last year and relocated to El Salvador the same month.
He told the Herald he moved because he was attracted to the Central American country’s pro-Bitcoin stance. He had been unaware of the alleged wrongdoing by Macaskill.
As an investor he had lost money, he said.
Strajnar is a major shareholder in crypto investment firm Techemy, which had a 38 per cent holding in Dasset, making it the second largest shareholder after Macaskill with his 40 per cent stake.
Cayman Islands-based BNK to the Future – a shareholder in the Kim Dotcom-founded Bitcache cryptocurrency venture, placed in liquidation in July last year – is also a minor investor in Techemy.
Ruscoe and Moore are also the liquidators for Christchurch crypto exchange Cryptopia, which was placed in liquidation in May of 2019, following an alleged hack in January of that year where around 9 per cent of the firm’s assets went missing.
The long-running liquidation, complicated by the fact that customers’ funds were “co-mingled” by the exchange rather than actually stored in individual digital wallets, has been the subject of a number of High Court hearings as various customers, and the liquidators themselves, have sought clarification on how liquidation laws apply to virtual assets, among other issues.
In the latest High Court decision, released on March 1 following a November 13, 2023, hearing, Justice Palmer ruled that December 31, 2024, would be the final cut-off date for customers to register payment details with the liquidator for the eventual pay out.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
