The Serious Fraud Office announced today it has opened an investigation into a New Zealand-based cryptocurrency trading platform that was placed into liquidation last year.
Digital Asset Exchange Ltd, trading as Dasset, was placed into liquidation in August 2023.
The company offered users the ability to buy and sell over 90 digital assets with New Zealand dollars.
CEO Stephen Macaskill said at the time that the company was unable to find a new banking provider after its previous provider stopped working with the exchange in January 2023.
This was due to “declining value in digital assets”, a liquidators’ report by public accountant firm Grant Thornton stated.
An estimated 5000 people were registered users of the company at the time of liquidation, and were then unable to access their accounts.
Inquiries into Dasset by the Serious Fraud Office began around the same time following a referral from the Financial Markets Authority.
“The inquiry has now been escalated to an investigation,” said an SFO spokesperson.
“Anyone who has information that may be relevant to this investigation, or who was a customer of Dasset, is encouraged to contact the SFO at dasset@sfo.govt.nz.”
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