PlusToken’ three co-founders have been sentenced in a Chinese criminal case.

Language-barriers means tracking the scope of the Chinese investigation into Plus Token is difficult.

Initial reports in mid 2019
pegged Plus Token investor losses
at $2.9 billion. A year or so later we learned Chinese authorities had
arrested 109 suspects
.

Of those arrested, Plus Token’s creation has been attributed to three individuals; identified only as Chen, Ding and Peng.

Peng has a criminal history of MLM and has rich experience in MLM promotion; Ding has an identity and resources in the blockchain field and is familiar with blockchain technology.

Upon being caught, Plus Token’s co-founders claimed they were just regular investors. An investigation by Chinese authorities revealed their actual roles within the scam.

The prosecutor also showed the WeChat chat records between Ding and Chen, confirming that the key development-related parts of the “PlusToken” platform name, organizational structure, reward mechanism, and operation mechanism were planned by Ding and Chen through consultation.

With the assistance of others, Plus Token’s co-founders amassed a staggering amount of cryptocurrency:

194,775 BTC

833,083 ETH

1,400,000 LTC

27,600,000 EOS

74,167 DASH

487,000,000 XRP

6,000,000,000 DOGE

79,581 BCH and

213,724 USDT

Based on current values, together that comes to around $4.2 billion USD. Bearing in mind cryptocurrency’s volatile nature, total investor losses are that plus whatever was paid out.

That ups the ante on the previously estimated $2.9 billion in losses considerably.

The bad news for Plus Token’s two million plus victims is that a Chinese court has ordered the seized assets be surrendered to the national treasury.

Specific details haven’t been made public but it appears the Chinese government will simply keep Plus Token victim funds.

Plus Token
was a crypto wallet Ponzi scheme launched in 2018. Like many of the cryptocurrency scams coming out of Europe, Plus Token employed foreigners to act as puppet management.

Ding, who has always claimed to be an ordinary member, as the principal offender.

He uses the blockchain guise in the MLM organization to hire foreigners as “puppets”, forging overseas backgrounds, etc., played the role of “military division”. (auto-translated)

Following a trial held in July, Ding was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison. He was also fined ~$607,514.

I believe the other two Plus Token co-founders have yet to face trial. No idea on the fate of the multitude of others arrested.

Update 3rd December 2020 –
Additional reporting from the
South China Morning Post
identifies “Chen” as Plus Token co-founder “Chen Bo”.

In January 2019, Chen and his team fled to Cambodia to continue the PlusToken operations, and they hired local staff to pose as the platform’s “founders” to market it as an international project.

Chen paid his staff with cryptocurrencies and also cashed out 127 million yuan

🤖 Quick Answer

What happened to the $4.2 billion in seized Plus Token funds?
The Chinese government retained $4.2 billion from funds seized during the Plus Token investigation. The cryptocurrency scheme, which defrauded investors of approximately $2.9 billion initially, resulted in authorities arresting 109 suspects and sentencing three co-founders identified as Chen, Ding, and Peng for their roles in the fraudulent operation.

Who were Plus Token's founders and what were their backgrounds?
Plus Token's three co-founders were identified only as Chen, Ding, and Peng. Peng possessed a criminal history in multi-level marketing with extensive MLM promotion experience. Ding held blockchain industry credentials and possessed technical knowledge of blockchain technology. Upon arrest, all three initially claimed to be regular investors before investigation revealed their actual roles.

How many people were arrested in the Plus Token investigation?

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