Zhu Juntao, the former CEO of Hodlnaut, a now-defunct crypto lending platform, has been charged with fraud in Singapore over allegedly misleading claims about the company's exposure to the collapse of TerraUSD (UST).
According to a police statement released Tuesday, Zhu was charged in court with six offenses for allegedly distributing "misleading statements" through the company's official channels.
Authorities alleged that Zhu instigated employees in 2022 to post statements on Telegram and in official emails claiming that Hodlnaut had no direct exposure to UST and had not suffered losses from the token's collapse.
"These statements allegedly asserted that Hodlnaut did not have direct exposure to UST and / or did not suffer losses arising from the crash of UST," the police statement said.
Zhu also allegedly posted similar claims on his personal account on X (then known as Twitter), per the statement.
Hodlnaut, which once claimed to serve over 30,000 users globally, became defunct in August 2022 amid a liquidity crisis. An affidavit cited in an earlier exclusive report by The Block showed that the May 2022 collapse of UST resulted in losses of roughly $189.7 million for the platform.
If convicted, Zhu faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine, or both, according to the police statement.
Singapore has intensified enforcement efforts against crypto-related crime. Last year, the country arrested and extradited three suspects to the U.S. over allegations tied to crypto market-making firms for allegedly "wash trading" cryptocurrencies to inflate trading volume and prices.