Crypto fund co-founder arrested, jailed in Singapore

SINGAPORE (AFP): One of the co-founders of collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital has been apprehended in Singapore and jailed for four months, according to the company’s liquidator.

The Singapore-based company filed for bankruptcy last year when its fortunes suffered a sharp decline after a massive sell-off of assets it had bet on as prices nosedived in crypto markets.

Su Zhu was detained at Singapore’s Changi airport while trying to leave the city-state, Three Arrows’ liquidator Teneo said in a statement late Friday.

His arrest came after Teneo said it obtained a committal order this week against Zhu for failing to comply with its investigation into the company’s failure.

“The committal order granted by the Singapore Courts sentenced Mr Zhu to 4 months’ imprisonment,” Teneo said.

His co-founder Kyle Davies was also committed to four months in prison but “his whereabouts remain unknown at this point in time”, it said.

Singapore’s monetary authority had banned the pair “from conducting regulated investment activity for nine years each”, Teneo said.

The liquidator, ordered to preside over the bankruptcy by a court in the British Virgin Islands, is attempting to recover the assets of Three Arrows and bring returns to its creditors after the company failed.

However it has accused Zhu and Davies of not cooperating with the effort to return funds and failing to voluntarily provide information.

In a profile in The New York Times in June, the pair said they had been travelling since the hedge fund’s collapse, including to the Indonesian resort island of Bali where they had been surfing and meditating.

Singapore police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.