Weibo kol@老王 wyattwang exposed the employee fraud incident of Matrixport, a financial platform under the control of Bitmain's Wu Jihan, which has attracted widespread attention in the cryptocurrency circle.
Matrixport, a cryptocurrency financial platform under the control of Bitmain's founder Wu Jihan, has a senior client manager named Zhaobei. Earlier this year, Zhaobei launched the first phase of "Liuyuan" on Matrixport, with a fund size of 10 ETH and a return rate of 133% after a few months. After Zhaobei achieved a return rate of 133% on his own platform, several employees of Matrixport became active in various WeChat groups, promoting the high returns of "Liuyuan" and attracting Chinese investors.
Matrixport even spent money to publish advertorials promoting the 133% return rate of the first phase of "Liuyuan", hiding the key information of a fund size of 10 ETH and Zhaobei being a senior client manager of the platform.
After raising 1000 ETH in the second phase of "Liuyuan", it inexplicably suffered continuous losses, with the current loss exceeding 90%. Instead of providing an explanation, Zhaobei insulted the investors and called them idiots and unqualified investors. Some investors who suffered losses requested Matrixport to provide transaction records, but their requests were rejected, giving them reason to doubt the authenticity of the profit and loss data.
In 2021, Matrixport announced the expulsion of mainland Chinese users, but in 2024, it illegally absorbed funds from mainland Chinese citizens on a large scale for virtual currency speculation. While illegally absorbing funds from Chinese citizens, Matrixport arranged for its employees to escape Chinese judicial sanctions overseas, maliciously resisting Chinese judicial supervision.
Without operating qualifications in China, Matrixport's senior client manager Zhaobei also does not have a public fund qualification. The second phase of "Liuyuan" illegally raised 1000 ETH from the public, with a market value exceeding 20 million RMB at that time.
According to Chinese law, illegal fundraising activities must meet three conditions at the same time: first, "without the permission of the financial management department of the State Council or in violation of national financial management regulations", namely illegality; second, "promising repayment of principal and interest or providing other investment returns", namely inducement; third, "absorbing funds from unspecified objects", namely sociality.
Article 192 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that those who use fraudulent methods to illegally raise funds for the purpose of illegal possession, with a large amount involved, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined; those with huge amounts or other serious circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or have their property confiscated.
Individuals who engage in fundraising fraud with an amount exceeding 100,000 yuan shall be deemed to have a "relatively large amount"; those with an amount exceeding 300,000 yuan shall be deemed to have a "huge amount"; those with an amount exceeding 1 million yuan shall be deemed to have a "particularly huge amount". Although Matrixport's senior client manager Zhaobei has fled to Thailand, there is judicial assistance between China and Thailand, and he will also be repatriated. Victims are advised to report the case to the local police station and indicate that the amount involved is huge, exceeding 20 million RMB.
Weibo kol@脱口秀小企鹅 commented on this incident: How many good people can there be in fundraising and speculation? The cryptocurrency circle moves fast and has high leverage. If you have skills and your own money, you can make a profit. Those who raise funds for speculation are not willing to lose their own money, but they are happy to gamble with other people's money.