A former director of the Australian crypto company Blockchain Global, which collapsed owing creditors $58m, has been banned from leaving the country.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission secured the interim travel ban in the federal court on 20 February after successfully arguing the director, Liang “Allan” Guo, posed a flight risk.
Guo, who is a Chinese citizen, has been ordered to hand over to the court any passports in his possession.
The hearing was held in Guo’s absence, so he did not immediately have the chance to respond to the judgment.
Guo, along with fellow directors Sam Lee and Ryan Xu, were referred by liquidators to Asic for alleged potential breaches of the Corporations Act. Asic is investigating the allegations.
Lee and Xu were also involved in the crypto investment scheme known as HyperVerse, which was the subject of a Guardian Australia investigation and which has allegedly defrauded investors globally of US$1.89bn. Guo is not believed to have been involved in the HyperVerse scheme.
Lee, who now lives in Dubai, has been charged in the US for his role in the HyperVerse scheme, which the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US has described as a “pyramid and Ponzi scheme”. He has not responded to the charges.
In the federal court judgment published on Wednesday, Justice Button agreed to impose the ban on Guo leaving Australia until 20 August, saying the allegations against him were “very serious”.
These included allegedly transferring investor funds for personal benefit.
“Asic has also noted that, during his directorship, Mr Guo transferred $2.6 million out of a bank account holding investor funds, some of which was applied to his personal home loan account and his personal bank account,” the judgment said.
“Asic has also referred to Mr Guo retaining 23.11 bitcoins, said to be worth approximately $1.8 million, which were the property of Blockchain Global and having transferred them into a cryptocurrency wallet controlled by Mr Guo on 8 December 2019.”
Asic argued that given the other directors of Blockchain Global had left Australia soon after its collapse, Guo was “the only person closely involved with the affairs of Blockchain Global who remains in Australia”.
“Asic anticipates that interviewing or examining Mr Guo will be critical to Asic pursuing the investigation, which it anticipates may culminate in the referral of a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions,” the judgment stated.
According to the judgment, Asic anticipates it will take 12 months to investigate and deliver a brief of evidence to the DPP.
In his reasons, Button commented on the apparent delay to Asic’s investigation, which was launched on 16 January after Guardian Australia’s investigation into HyperVerse.
“It is not apparent why the investigation was commenced when it was, given when Blockchain Global failed. Nonetheless, the investigation is on foot, albeit in its early days.”
In a statement, Asic said it had applied for the travel restraint orders “over concerns that Mr Guo may leave the country while it continues its investigation”.
“As the hearing was held in his absence, Mr Guo has not yet had the opportunity to respond to Asic’s application or the basis upon which Asic claims the orders are necessary.”
Guo has not previously responded to questions from Guardian Australia about the allegations against him in the liquidator report filed with Asic.
He has been contacted for comment regarding the travel ban.
