2 men allegedly linked to theft of cryptocurrencies worth over $8m charged
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The pair and other unknown parties are accused of committing the offence on or around June 30.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – Two men allegedly worked together to access a computer platform even though they were not authorised to do so and stole cryptocurrencies worth around US$6.5 million (S$8.3 million).
On Aug 28, Singaporean Dai Yong, 36, and Chinese national Zhang Xinghua, 38, were each charged with one count of misusing a computer system linked to global cryptocurrency exchange SafeX.
The pair and other unknown parties are accused of committing the offence on or around June 30.
The police said in a statement that on Aug 22, officers received a report about a case involving multiple instances of unauthorised access to a cryptocurrency wallet, resulting in unlawful transfers of cryptocurrencies from it.
Officers from the Cybercrime Command of the Criminal Investigation Department identified the two men and arrested them four days later.
The authorities managed to recover about US$1.2 million in cryptocurrency assets which were allegedly stolen earlier.
Officers also seized multiple electronic devices, including five laptop computers and four mobile phones.
The cases involving Dai and Zhang will be mentioned again in court on Sept 5.
For causing a computer system to perform an unauthorised access, a first-time offender can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000.
A repeat offender can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
