The Australian government’s assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has stated his intention to query the country’s securities regulator over its failure to warn investors about the risks of investing in the now-collapsed crypto investment firm Hyperverse. Jones stated that a “bunch” of Australians had invested in the scheme whose only source of income was the money coming from new investors.
ASIC Accused of Failing to Follow the Lead of Other Regulators
An Australian government official has questioned the country’s securities regulator over its failure to issue a consumer warning against the Hyperverse crypto investment scheme. Stephen Jones, the assistant treasurer in the Aussie government, said he plans to ask why the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) failed to follow the lead of regulators in the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and Hungary.
The remarks by Australia’s assistant treasurer came just days after a media probe found that the CEO of Hyperverse, Steven Reece Lewis, was a fictitious person. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, two U.K. universities, namely the University of Leeds and the University of Cambridge, have already said they do not have Lewis’ records.
According to media reports, the now-collapsed Hyperverse crypto investment scheme’s promotional material falsely portrayed its CEO, Steven Reece Lewis, as a graduate of two higher learning institutions. In addition, the CEO also received plaudits from celebrities like Steve Wozniak and Chuck Norris. Both the celebrity endorsements and degree claims are thought to have helped the masterminds of the scam defraud thousands of investors.
Describing the operation which the masterminds employed to hoodwink a “bunch” of Australians into investing in the scheme, the assistant treasurer said:
“This type of scheme works by convincing innocent people to invest their money into a product that might not exist, with the only source of income being money from new investors. I simply don’t know why a warning wasn’t issued.”
Jones also implied that a scheme such as Hyperverse bears hallmarks of a scam therefore prospective investors should have been warned.
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