- Bybit, ex-payroll manager at Bybit Ho Kai Xin, was charged with fraud, money laundering, and contempt of court, while Bybit recovered only a portion of the stolen funds
- Ho has been sentenced to nine years and 11 months in prison for diverting over $4.2 million from Bybit
The ex-payroll manager at Bybit Fintech, Ho Kai Xin, has been sentenced to nine years and 11 months in prison for stealing $4.2 million in cryptocurrency.
February 20, the 32-year-old Ho Kai Xin was sentenced to a jail term of nine years and 11 months after admitting to five cheating offenses, eight charges related to handling illegal funds, and one for providing false details to an official. During the course of the sentence, additional 30 offenses were taken into account.
How Ho Kai Xin Fraudulently Diverted Money From Bybit to Her Personal Account
Court records showed that Bybit mistakenly transferred 4.2 million USDT to Ho Kai Xin’s wallets in eight transactions between May and August 2022.
To carry out this theft, she modified payroll spreadsheets by adding extra rows and placing her own cryptocurrency addresses beside real employee names, tricking the finance team into thinking the payments were legitimate.
After which she presented the modified spreadsheets to her manager for confirmation, and because of trust in Ho, He would approve them without checking the details. After receiving approval, she passed the documents to WeChain’s finance team, which processed the payments.
For cryptocurrency transfers, she took extra steps by removing identifying information from the records before submitting them to Bybit. This helped conceal inconsistencies, enabling unapproved crypto funds to reach her personal wallets without being caught or noticed.
The first fund she diverted was in May 2022 by swindling Wechain of more than $117,000 after manipulating Microsoft Excel files that reflected payments that she was not entitled to.
She managed six bank accounts and four crypto wallets on different platforms, she spent the money on luxurious lifestyle, buying a $3.7 million freehold penthouse, a Mercedes-Benz AMG A45, and expensive Louis Vuitton items.
Ho Kai Xin Offences and Legal Consequences
Between May 31 and August 31, 2022, Bybit unknowingly transferred over 4.2 million USDT to Ho Kai Xin’s cryptocurrency wallets through eight different transactions that summed up to a total of about $5.7 million she laundered more than $4.3 million of the stolen funds.
In February 2023, a representative from WeChain reported Ho’s crimes to the police, and that led to her arrest two months later. During questioning, she provided false information, claiming that her non-existent cousin named “Jason Teo” was responsible for all the illegal transfers.
Authorities later seized more than $330,000 worth of assets from her, including a Mercedes-Benz. Bybit managed to recover over 1.1 million USDT from her cryptocurrency wallets and $140,000 from one of her bank accounts.
February 20, 2025, her lawyer, James Gomez, requested a sentence of up to eight years and eight months in prison, arguing that she regretted her decisions.
Meanwhile, the court previously ordered her not to use any unlawfully obtained assets. Despite this, she violated the ruling and spent nearly $840,000 on luxury items. As a result, she received a separate six-week jail sentence for contempt of court on January 27.
She has been charged with 44 offenses, including fraud, money laundering, and providing false information to police.
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