Three Persons Are Accused of a $1.9 Billion Cryptocurrency Fraud

An Australian and two Americans have allegedly been charged with orchestrating a $1.9 billion cryptocurrency fraud centered on the alleged DeFi platform HyperFund, according to Decrypt. Sam Lee, an Australian citizen, was named as one of the co-founders of HyperFund, along with Rodney Burton and Brenda Chunga, who were accused by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of promoting the scheme and defrauding investors of $1.89 billion by asserting investment returns would be generated by nonexistent cryptocurrency mining operations.

False claims were made regarding investment contracts offered and sold to the public via HyperFund between June 2020 and November 2022. These claims included HyperFund memberships that promised investors daily passive rewards ranging from 0.5% to 1% until the company doubled or tripled the investor's initial investment. The DOJ stated that HyperFund's assertion that a portion of its payments would be deducted from its profits from large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations was false.

Burton is indicted for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise, whereas Lee and Chunga are accused of conspiring to commit wire and securities fraud. Chunga entered a guilty plea. If convicted, the utmost sentence for the triumvirate in federal prison would be five years. HyperFund is alternatively referred to as HyperTech, HyperCapital, HyperVerse, and HyperNation, according to the DOJ.