14 arrested in $6.4m Taiwan crypto exchange conspiracy

Taiwanese crypto exchange ACE plans to delist the token and is cooperating with law enforcement after its founder was detained.

ACE founder David Pan was arrested on Jan. 4 with 13 other suspects for their alleged role in a cryptocurrency scam perpetuated over three years, according to the Liberty Times, a local news outlet. 

The ACE founder and a co-conspirator, identified as Lin, are suspected of a conspiracy to leverage misleading social media advertising as a tool to attract investors. Victims reportedly poured millions into shady crypto tokens like MOCT. 

Taiwan police raided several locations, including an ACE exchange office, and seized NT$100 million — $2.8 million — in cryptocurrencies.  Lin’s residence was also searched, and law enforcement found around NT$111.52 million, or $3.6 million, in cash, a total of $6.4 million in full.

An ACE spokesperson said some of the arrested suspects were not company employees. The exchange promised full cooperation with investigators and noted that founder Pan had ceased input in daily ACE operations since 2022.  

The ACE scandal is the latest crypto scam to rock the Asian market. In December, an Indian engineer lost over $100,000 to a digital asset investment scam. Indian authorities also arrested police agents linked to a massive $300 million crypto scam. 

Hong Kong police issued a warning in October, alerting users and investors to a Binance impersonation scheme. The same month, Binance aided the Royal Thai Police in seizing $227 million in crypto from scammers.