Sam Lee AKA (Xue Samuel Lee) is an Australian citizen and co-founded Hyperfund / Hypertech / HyperCapital/ HyperNation (HyperFund) with Ryan Xu (aka Zijing Xu).
Lee claimed to be involved in “Large Scale Crypto Mining,” including bitcoin, that promoters asserted was a key revenue source for HyperFund.
HyperFund operated a purportedly legitimate decentralized finance, or “DeFi,” cryptocurrency investment platform and touted its investment program to the public through social media and other means.
In truth, HyperFund was a global securities fraud and wire fraud scheme that obtained approximately $1.89 billion from victim-investors world-wide.
The US attorney for the district of Maryland, Erek L Barron went after Sam Lee, and said the Department of Justice would:
“hold perpetrators accountable for these and other fraud schemes”, with Lee facing up to five years in jail if convicted.
“The level of alleged fraud here is staggering,” Barron said.
The criminal complaint lodged in the district court of Maryland charges Lee with conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, while a separate civil complaint brought by the US Securities Exchange Commission charges Lee with fraud and with the unregistered sale of securities in breach of the US Securities Act.
Likely as a result of an Interpol Red Notice, the UAE authorities arrested Sam Lee in