Hong Kong Court Sentences Former Bank Employee for Cryptocurrency Signature Scam

Hong Kong courts have sentenced a former China Construction Bank (Asia) relationship manager to four years in prison for accepting over $470,000 in Tether (USDT) to certify forged bank documents with a stated value exceeding $1.6 billion.

According to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), 32-year-old Ram Chun-in handled retail banking services at a Cosway Bay branch but had no involvement in letters of credit, which the bank never authorized for processing.

The crypto bribery case began with Vesttoo Limited, an overseas fintech company that has since ceased operations. The platform facilitated insurance-related investment transactions requiring investors to provide bank-issued standby letters of credit as collateral. Yu Po Holdings Limited became an investor through this platform in early 2022, after which a criminal organization orchestrated Ram's false introduction as the bank's letter-of-credit issuer.

From April to June 2022, ICAC stated that Ram conspired with Vesttoo’s department head and accomplices to accept Tether payments. He certified multiple forged standby letters of credit and two collateral documents falsely claiming to be issued and approved by Yu Po Holdings.

Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung imposed a six-year sentence but reduced it by one-third for Ram's guilty plea, ordering him to repay approximately HKD 3.7 million (CCB Asia) in bribes.

ICAC revealed that suspects attempted to conceal the case by indirectly channeling bribes through cryptocurrency. The agency has applied for arrest warrants for other individuals linked to the case and is pursuing further arrests related to Vesttoo's Hong Kong chapter, which remains ongoing.