Odaily, citing Caixin, reported that a Chinese businesswoman from the crypto sector was defrauded in the United States, losing more than $9.4 million, equivalent to about RMB 60 million. The person was identified in the report as Lv, the CEO of a computing-power technology company in southwest China. Caixin said the mining pool under her company was once said to account for about 9% of the global Bitcoin hashrate at its peak.
According to the report, the alleged fraud involved two Zubair brothers who claimed to have ties to a “Middle Eastern royal family.” One of them described himself as the “son-in-law of a Middle Eastern royal family” and claimed access to Middle Eastern family funds, international business relationships, and U.S. local government resources. The other reportedly modeled his image on a character from the TV series “Billions” and presented himself as a hedge fund manager.
Caixin also reported that the Zubair brothers managed to contact and influence Michael Smedley, the chief of staff to the mayor of East Cleveland, Ohio. The sequence of events ultimately led Lv to sign a cryptocurrency mining farm development contract, resulting in the reported loss of more than $9.4 million.