How Haru Invest and Block Crafters freezed withdrawals, ran a ponzi and committed fraud

 

1. Park Suyong, Hong Soon, Jangwon Lee, and Chung Byung Hoon set up Block Crafters in South Korea and Block Crafters Capital in Singapore in 2018.

2. They rope in Hugo Lee Hyungsoo and, all 5 of them start BCHARU in Singapore in 2020.

2a. Hidden Evils: Wealthy individuals like Chun YangHyun take 50% Preference Share1 stake in BCHARU. Oscar Consulting and Solaire Culture Plus Fund of Korea take the other 50% Preference Shares.   

2c. The Syndicate: The largest ordinary shareholders are Park Suyong (39%), Song Hoon (34%), Joo Eunkwang  (4%) the CTO and Chung Byung Hoon (4%) the co-founder of Block Crafters.

2c. Suspicious: The Haru office in Singapore is an empty one with no staff and no equipment.

3. They setup the website www.haruinvest.com  in 2020. Haru markets itself as providing interest on Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits to investors. They use these terms to entice investors: “risk-free”, “principal-guaranteed”, and “we don’t block withdrawals”5.

4a. Greed: The address of Haru’s BVI office is shared with hundreds of other companies. Address is found in the Panama Papers, a database of offshore funds2.

5. Block Crafters suffers massive losses 3 years in a row 2020:

-$1.7M USD, 2021: -$1.4M USD, 2022: -$1.8M USD. It never makes a profit. Same for Cocone Korea.  

5. Haru operates as a Ponzi scheme, using new users coins to pay old users. At one point, there are worth USD$2.5 billion of crypto deposits4.. The Haru executive team steals money to their personal wallets. 

7. Suddenly, there is not enough money left for Haru to steal. 

7a.  In 2023, new user growth slows.

7b.  By now, the Haru and Block Crafters executive team has siphoned off millions of dollars worth of user’s savings.

7c. Haru realises they are unable to meet payroll expenses for their employees.

7d. FTX collapses in 2022, however Haru lies that they weren't involved. 

7e. Sang Woon Oh, the CMO of Haru, passed away in 2022. Yet, the Haru executive team isn’t caring enough to update the website and they don’t release any press releases or tweets.

8. On 13 June 2023, Haru freezes withdrawals for all users in over 140 countries.

8a. The Linkedin and Youtube accounts of Block CrafterYouts, Block Crafters capital and Haru Invest are deleted.  

8b. The Block Crafters and Haru office in South Korea all become empty shells.

8c. Haru blames a supplier B&S, however, Haru’s own earlier statements state that they manage their own assets.

9. On 22 June 2023, Haru executive team fires all their employees

10. Through transferring assets to family members, associates and offshore entities, and using  false documentation and money laundering, the criminals behind Haru and Block Crafters attempt to hide their stolen funds.