FileCoin Investors Seek $382K Damages from Wong

Wong Ching-kit, who allegedly was selling FileCoin mining equipment with promises for rapid high returns, has dismissed the accusation of fraudulent activities.

Four Hong Kong citizens who bought FileCoin mining equipment from crypto millionaire Wong Ching-kit have filed complaints against him with the police claiming the project is a scam, SCMP reported on Sunday. Wong denies the allegations.

The investors are part of a group of more than affected 20 Hongkongers, according to the local Democratic Party (DP), which is helping FileCoin investors in filing their complaints to the authorities. The victims claim HK$3 million ($382,690) in damages after buying FileCoin mining equipment from Wong with his promises of high and rapid returns.

The investors, aged between 20 and 49, initially signed contracts with Wong personally, but later, they were asked to switch to his company Coin's Group in an attempt to evade legal responsibility, Ramon Yuen Hoi-man, a DP member, told the Standard newspaper. The party called on the authorities to launch an official investigation into the alleged scam.

One of the FileCoin backers, named by DP as Ms. Chiu, said she had invested HK$120,000 ($15,309) in the project but has not yet received any profits.

“At first, I was told I could get a refund if Filecoin could not be launched in time,” Chiu explained as quoted by the SCMP. “But when we asked for a refund, he used delaying tactics and made different excuses to turn us down.”

Wong promised refunds in 45 days to investors after an audit by his company accounting department, according to the Standard. More than ten backers of FileCoin would receive refunds, he explained. Separately, in a Facebook post, Wong denied all accusations of fraud.

“I sell mining machines only but am treated as if I have killed people. When they make money, there is no thank you. When they lose money, they call it a scam,” Wong wrote in the post.

A police spokesperson said that nine investors had already filed complaints totaling about HK$940,000 ($199,923) related to Wong's FileCoin activities. Earlier, the Hong Kong law enforcement agency announced that it would investigate Wong for money laundering as the 24-year old has an eight-digit sum in his bank accounts. Wong manages several digital assets related Facebook pages, among them File Cash Coin and Epoch.Cryptocurrency. He was born as Kwan Tsz-kit but changed his name after being convicted of theft and sentenced to 160 hours of community service.

Officially, FileCoin is a project of Protocol Labs, the company behind InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). In 2017, FileCoin claimed a $257 million initial coin offering (ICO). A FileCoin post from August says the coin network would be launched in the first or second quarter of 2019.