A former payroll employee has been sentenced to nine years and 11 months in jail for orchestrating a $5.7 million fraud involving cryptocurrency in Singapore. By manipulating payroll records over a year, she funneled over 4.2 million USDT into her personal wallets, disguising the transfers as legitimate payments. The stolen funds financed an extravagant lifestyle, including a $750,000 down payment on a $3.7 million penthouse, high-end fashion purchases, and a luxury car.

Despite a court order to cease spending the illicit gains, she continued to do so, leading to an additional six-week jail term in January. Authorities have recovered some assets, but a significant portion remains missing. The woman, Ho Kai Xin, 32, was employed at Wechain Fintech Singapore, a company responsible for processing payroll for Bybit Fintech.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou reacted to the case on social media platform X on Feb. 21, calling it a difficult situation for all parties involved. He shared:

There is no winner for cases like this. I’m saddened to see that an ex-colleague ended up in jail for her misconduct and the impact she brought to her family as well. At the same time, the company was never able to recuperate the full loss.

The case prompted Bybit to strengthen internal payroll approval mechanisms and conduct regular audits to prevent fraud. Expressing confidence in Singapore’s law enforcement, Zhou added:

We, as an industry, should have full confidence in law enforcement, for the crypto assets protection we receive, and put joint efforts to protect any other help needed.

Prosecutors Jeremy Bin and Ariel Tan stated that Ho’s fraud began modestly in May 2022 when she misappropriated $117,000 by altering payroll spreadsheets. Encouraged by the lack of detection, she escalated her deception, making Bybit transfer large sums to her digital wallets. The fraud continued until February 2023, when a Wechain representative reported the discrepancies to the police, leading to her arrest. During the investigation, Ho attempted to mislead authorities by blaming a fictitious relative, “Jason Teo,” for the unauthorized transactions. The court heard that police managed to seize more than $330,000 worth of assets, including the luxury car, while Bybit recovered over 1.1 million USDT and $140,000 from her bank accounts. Despite her lawyer’s plea for a lighter sentence, citing her role as a mother of two, the court handed down a severe punishment, reinforcing Singapore’s tough stance on financial crimes.

​On Feb. 21, Bybit also experienced a major security breach that resulted in the theft of approximately $1.5 billion in Ethereum tokens. Following the incident, the exchange saw an unprecedented surge in withdrawal requests, surpassing 350,000, as users reacted to the breach.

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