LIVE
TRACECHAIN™FORENSICS
FRAUD INTELLIGENCE · CASE FILES · GLOBAL SCOREBOARD
REPORT FRAUD Find your country and who to contact ▸🔍 Search cases, companies, countries, agencies
INTEL
PIG BUTCHERING: now the #1 loss category in the US by estimated volume / HUSHPUPPI: the Instagram that became the evidence -- Case 001 open / BEC: one spoofed email, one wire, seven figures -- see the methodology / ROSS ULBRICHT: full pardon January 21 2025 after 11+ years -- Case 013 open / ALL FIGURES LABELED: estimate vs conviction vs market collapse -- see Methodology / UNODC 2023: $5.4B estimated annually from SE Asia pig-butchering compounds [UNVERIFIED] / PIG BUTCHERING: now the #1 loss category in the US by estimated volume / HUSHPUPPI: the Instagram that became the evidence -- Case 001 open / BEC: one spoofed email, one wire, seven figures -- see the methodology / ROSS ULBRICHT: full pardon January 21 2025 after 11+ years -- Case 013 open / ALL FIGURES LABELED: estimate vs conviction vs market collapse -- see Methodology / UNODC 2023: $5.4B estimated annually from SE Asia pig-butchering compounds [UNVERIFIED]
◂ ALL COMPANIES◂ ALL CASES
COMPANY · MLM SCHEME

HyperFund (HyperTech / HyperVerse / HyperNation)

🇭🇰 Hong Kong / Dubai (HyperTech Group; Lee lived in Dubai) · FOUNDED 2020-06
THE FIGURE
~$1.89B
What the DOJ says HyperFund took from investors June 2020–November 2022 (alleged; SEC says $1.7B).
WHAT IT SAID IT WAS

An online 'membership' platform promising 0.5–1% a day from a large crypto-mining operation and ties to a Fortune 500 company, rebranded as it went.

WHAT IT REALLY WAS

A pyramid scheme with no mining and no revenue beyond new members' money; it took $1.89B (DOJ) or $1.7B (SEC) from investors worldwide before blocking withdrawals.

THE STORY

Sam Lee and Ryan Xu, Australian crypto promoters behind the collapsed Blockchain Global, launched HyperFund in June 2020 selling memberships that paid daily rewards from supposed mining. As money slowed the platform rebranded — HyperVerse in late 2021, with an actor hired to play its CEO, then HyperNation — and withdrawals were blocked from July 2021 until the scheme died in November 2022 having taken about $1.89 billion. The SEC and a Maryland grand jury charged Lee in January 2024; he was detained briefly in Dubai in late 2024 and remains untried.

WHO RAN IT
Sam Lee ▸
co-founder · open the case file
Ryan Xu
co-founder (Zijing Xu) — named by the SEC; not charged criminally in the US as of 2026
Brenda Chunga ('Bitcoin Beautee')
top promoter — pleaded guilty January 2024; settled with the SEC
WHO WAS HURT
investors worldwide, including many in the US, Australia and Africa
HOW IT ENDED
Founded
2020-06
Based
Hong Kong / Dubai (HyperTech Group; Lee lived in Dubai)
Ended
2022-11
How
collapsed — withdrawals blocked from July 2021; scheme ended November 2022

SEC civil fraud charges against Lee and promoter Brenda Chunga (29 January 2024); Chunga settled and pleaded guilty criminally. Maryland indictment of Lee unsealed the same day; Lee was detained in Dubai in November 2024 and released; no trial or verdict as of September 2026. Promoter Rodney Burton pleaded guilty (2024).

SOURCES
sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-11justice.gov/usao-md/pr/three-individuals-charged-189-billion-cryptocurcoindesk.com/policy/2024/01/29/hyperverses-alleged-ponzi-scheme-raked-
Facts as published in court records, regulator releases and the sources above. Anyone charged and not convicted is alleged only.
🏠 HOME📁 CASES🚨 WANTED🎮 PLAY🌍 WORLD