Woman Sentenced to 10 Years for $5.7M Bybit Fraud

The idea of payment in crypto makes people show their greedy nature, thinking that they can do crime and no get caught; It was not the case for a payroll manager in WeChain.

Payroll Fraud Scheme

A former payroll manager for Bybit, Ho Kai Xin, has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison in Singapore for stealing $5.7 million from the crypto exchange. She pleaded guilty to 44 charges, including fraud and money laundering.

Ho worked at WeChain, a company handling payroll for Bybit, and altered payroll records to send funds to her own crypto wallets. She later converted the stolen crypto into cash, using it for luxury purchases.

How She Did It

May 2022: Ho began the fraud, initially undetected.
By February 2023: WeChain discovered the fraud and alerted authorities.
April 2023: Ho was arrested.
Total stolen: $5.7 million, with $4.2 million laundered.
Recovered funds: Over $1.1 million in Tether (USDT) and $140,000 from her bank account.

Lavish Spending

Ho used the stolen funds to:

Place a $750,000 deposit on a $3.7M penthouse.
Buy luxury items from Louis Vuitton.
Purchase a Mercedes-Benz (later seized by authorities).

Fake Identity Cover-Up

When questioned, Ho falsely claimed that a cousin named “Jason Teo” was responsible. Investigators later confirmed Teo didn’t exist.

Court Ruling

Ho initially ignored a court order and spent stolen funds, leading to six extra weeks in jail.
Prosecutors argued she was emboldened by her early success and went on a fraud spree.
Her lawyer requested a lighter sentence, citing her two young children.