The Amazon Web Service cloud service had recently received one of its biggest consumers from Singapore, but it was quickly discovered after a small investigation that the user was impersonating several US-based personalities and thus using the computing power for his own benefit by mining several cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, and LTC.
Ho Jun Jia, also known as “Prefinity” and “Ethereum Vendor” was arrested in Singapore in September 2019 and is waiting for the United States court to decide if they want to extradite him from the country.
This is very likely to happen as the US and Singapore have an extradition treaty. If the extradition does happen, Ho will have to face fines above the $5 million’s worth of computing power he consumed as well as some jail time for identity theft and fraud.
Who did Ho impersonate?
According to the investigation, Ho was impersonating an unnamed game developer in California, which was actually paying the bills on Ho’s illegal activity on the AWS. Furthermore, Ho had also undertaken the identity of a Texas-based individual and an Indian businessman.
In total, Ho had consumed a staggering amount of $5 million’s worth of computing power, thus potentially generating far more in profits than anticipated.
Investigators also say that Ho was using trading bots to then speculate with the cryptocurrencies he had generated through his illegal activities.
It is easily understandable as according to this Bitcoin Trader review on InsideBitcoins, the larger the amount deposited on a Bitcoin trading robot, the higher the chance of not making too much of a scene, therefore helping Ho keep his identity a secret.
It’s assumed that Ho made far more from speculations than he made with simply mining the cryptocurrencies, thus the unauthorized exchange of securities could also be added to his list of illegal activity.
Why will Singapore approve the extradition?
According to investigators, it is assumed that Ho was also hiding his identity in Singapore as well, therefore he was not subject to any type of income or capital gain tax that is active within the country.
Therefore, it’s easy to say that even if Ho is not extradited he will have to face charges of tax evasion in Singapore, which, although garners a much lighter punishment, would still mean the disclosure of the fortune he accumulated as well as several years served in prison.
However, considering that most of the damage was caused to US-based individuals as well as companies, Singapore is very unlikely to deny the extradition and allow US authorities to punish Ho.
In the end, all victims will be compensated for the damage they received from Ho’s illegal activities and further security measures will be implemented on the AWS and Google Cloud platforms.