Sam Lee

HyperFund told investors it would pay returns of 0.5 to 1 percent per day — compounding. On the surface, the mechanism was a large-scale cryptocurrency mining operation that generated the profits to fund those returns. The mining operation did not exist. [SOURCE: DOJ indictment; SEC complaint, January 2024]

Xue Lee, also known as Sam Lee, is an Australian citizen who resided in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He co-founded HyperFund — which also operated under the names HyperTech, HyperCapital, HyperVerse, and HyperNation — and ran it from approximately June 2020 through November 2022.

Investors purchased 'memberships' that entitled them to daily passive income. The promised returns were substantial: 0.5% to 1% per day, until the investment doubled or tripled. Promotional materials specified that payments came from crypto mining revenues. Beginning in at least July 2021, however, HyperFund began blocking investor withdrawals. The scheme collapsed in 2022.

The DOJ charged Lee, along with promoters Rodney Burton ('Bitcoin Rodney') and Brenda Chunga ('Bitcoin Beautee'), on January 29, 2024. Chunga pleaded guilty the same day. Lee, who was in Dubai, was not immediately arrested. He handed himself in to Dubai authorities in November 2024 on an Interpol notice, was held about 60 days and released; the detention allowed the SEC to effect formal service on him. [SOURCE: DOJ press release; BehindMLM, November 2024]

HyperFund used a multi-level marketing structure in which participants received compensation for recruiting new investors. The same structure that BitConnect (Case 080) used, that OneCoin (Cases 008 and 055) used, and that the series has documented across multiple entries: a passive income promise backed by a fictitious revenue source, layered onto an MLM recruitment incentive that drives growth.

The progression of the scheme across its rebrandings — HyperFund to HyperVerse to HyperNation — is notable. Each rebrand appears to have been a response to growing regulatory scrutiny or investor doubt, allowing the operation to restart its narrative without formally acknowledging the prior version's failures.

The SEC's civil case and the DOJ's criminal case run in parallel — the same pattern as the BitConnect prosecution (Cases 080) and the Kumbhani proceedings. Lee's criminal charge carries a maximum of five years; the civil case seeks disgorgement, injunctions, and civil penalties. No trial date has been set for Lee; his co-defendant Burton's trial was listed for June 2026.