A Hong Kong court has jailed a former China Construction Bank (Asia) relationship manager for four years after he took more than $470,000 in Tether (USDT) to authenticate forged bank instruments with a stated value above $1.6 billion.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said Lam Chun-yin, 32, worked in consumer banking at a Causeway Bay retail branch. His duties never involved letters of credit, and the bank never authorized him to handle them.

How the Crypto Bribery Scheme Turned a Retail Banker Into a Guarantor

The paperwork traces back to Vesttoo Limited, an overseas fintech firm that has since ceased operations. Its platform facilitated insurance-related investment deals. Investors had to post bank-issued standby letters of credit as a guarantee.

Yu Po Holdings Limited became an investor through the platform in early 2022. A crime syndicate then arranged for Lam to falsely present himself as the contact point at China Construction Bank Corporation for issuing those guarantees.

Between April and June 2022, Lam conspired with a Vesttoo department head and associates to accept Tether, the ICAC said. He authenticated multiple standby letters of credit that falsely claimed to come from the bank, plus two collateral letters that falsely claimed to be issued by Yu Po and endorsed by it.

“The incident was uncovered in an internal investigation by CCB (Asia), after which the bank lodged a corruption complaint with the ICAC and rendered full assistance. The ICAC enquiries revealed that neither CCB nor its sister companies had issued any of the relevant standby L/Cs and collateral letters,” the press release said.

Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung took six years as a starting point and cut a third for the guilty plea. He also ordered Lam to repay about HK$3.7 million to CCB (Asia), matching the bribes.

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

Crypto Keeps Turning Up in Hong Kong Case Files

The ICAC said those involved attempted to conceal the scheme by channeling the bribe payments indirectly through cryptocurrency. The agency has applied to the court for arrest warrants for others implicated in the case.

Digital assets feature elsewhere in the city’s enforcement record. Hong Kong police froze virtual assets worth HK$480 million during 2025.

The city also prosecuted 16 people in November 2025 over a separate virtual asset trading platform fraud. That case involved more than 2,700 victims and losses above HK$1.6 billion.

With the ICAC seeking further arrests, the Hong Kong chapter of the Vesttoo affair is not closed.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

Source: BeInCrypto