Former Banker Gets Four Years in Hong Kong Prison Over USDT Bribery Scheme

A Hong Kong court sentenced a former relationship manager at China Construction Bank (Asia) to four years in prison after he took over $470,000 in Tether (USDT) to authenticate forged bank instruments whose stated value exceeded $1.6 billion.

Lam Chun-yin, 32, worked in consumer banking at a Causeway Bay retail branch, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. His duties never included letters of credit, and the bank had not authorized him to handle them.

How a Retail Banker Was Turned Into a Guarantor in a Crypto Bribery Case

The documents originate from Vesttoo Limited, a now-defunct overseas fintech company. Its platform handled insurance-linked investments, requiring investors to provide bank-issued standby letters of credit as collateral.

Yu Po Holdings Limited started investing via the platform in early 2022. A criminal group then arranged for Lam to misrepresent himself as the contact person at China Construction Bank Corporation for issuing those guarantees.

From April to June 2022, Lam plotted with a Vesttoo department head and others to accept Tether, the ICAC stated. He validated several standby letters of credit that were fraudulently presented as originating from the bank, as well as two collateral letters falsely said to be issued and endorsed by Yu Po.

“The incident was uncovered in an internal investigation by CCB (Asia), after which the bank lodged a corruption complaint with the ICAC and rendered full assistance. The ICAC enquiries revealed that neither CCB nor its sister companies had issued any of the relevant standby L/Cs and collateral letters,” the press release stated.

Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung set a starting sentence of six years and reduced it by one-third due to the guilty plea. He also directed Lam to return approximately HK$3.7 million to CCB (Asia), matching the bribes.

Crypto Regularly Appears in Hong Kong Case Records

According to the ICAC, the participants tried to hide the scheme by funneling the bribe payments indirectly via cryptocurrency. The commission has sought court arrest warrants for other individuals involved.

Digital assets also appear in other enforcement actions in the city. In 2025, Hong Kong police froze virtual assets totaling HK$480 million.

In November 2025, Hong Kong authorities also prosecuted 16 individuals for a separate virtual asset trading platform fraud. That case had over 2,700 victims and losses exceeding HK$1.6 billion.

As the ICAC pursues additional arrests, the Vesttoo case in Hong Kong remains ongoing.