Macau’s Judiciary Police announced it had detained a 37-year-old male Macau resident for allegedly giving false information to attract investors in a cryptocurrency launch for use in transactions related to casino gambling.
The cryptocurrency originates from the company Lantai Digital Application Technology Co Ltd, which has since apologized for the launch with a message on its website.
“The Judiciary Police learnt from media reports on April 18 that the company that did the launch of the cryptocurrency subscription claimed that their digital tokens can be changed into gaming chips and used worldwide, as well as be used in online gaming,” said police spokesperson Lei Hon Nei at a press conference. “The company also claimed that they had cooperation relationship with Macau junkets.
“But we have not found any Macau junkets that have worked with this company regarding the developing of its cryptocurrency,” he said. “We believe that there are people using false information to attract the public to subscribe to the so-called cryptocurrency that they claim is a cooperation project with Macau junkets.”
The Macau resident was detained on suspicion of involvement in a scam and of organized crime, police said. The man was described as a driver tasked with taking gamblers to local casinos—is being questioned. At least 10 other people suspected of the same offences are still be traced, police said.
“According to our investigation, this cryptocurrency subscription launch event was organized and hosted by more than 10 people,” Lei said. “Their roles included the setting of the venue, and the purchasing of congratulatory flower baskets. At the launch venue, the names of some of local Macau junkets as well as some other mainland Chinese companies were written on the flower baskets. But these flower baskets were actually not sent by these junkets and companies.”
The company had been looking to issue two billion subscriptions for a total realization of HK$6 billion, police said. The list of junkets named include Suncity Group, Tak Chun Group, David Group, Meg-Star Group, and Venus Group.
The report prompted several Macau junket operators to issue clarifications saying they had no connections to Lantai Digital Application Technology.
Lantai issued an apology letter on its official website, stating that it “had never reached cooperation agreements in any form with Macau’s gaming firms”, and that its “subscription of cryptocurrency; its launch activity, trading and application” had no relation with the city’s gaming firms.
Lantai, which describes itself as a Cayman Islands-registered firm specialized in information technology, did say that its effort for the launch event of its cryptocurrency subscription had been aided by the Macau junket firm Venus Group.
Venus Group, however, was one of the local junket firms that said it was not involved with the company.
“The so-called clarification statement issued recently by Venus Group contains a malicious intent to direct the whole case the launch of the digital token onto Lantai,” the Lantai statement said. “Lantai preserves the right to take action against Venus Group.
In another matter, SJM Holdings Limited also told the Macau News Agency that it had been recently targeted in a scheme by a company claiming to be in negotiations with the local casino operator to sell its blockchain solutions and cryptocurrency.
The company, SmartPlay.tech, told the news agency that “it had discussed the possibility of implementing their blockchain platform into the existing gambling and slot machine software” of SJM.
However, SJM Holdings Limited said it has no collaboration SmartPlay and “We have no plans to co-operate with SmartPlay.tech.”
