On April 27, Mr. Luo was instructed by his superior to bring HK$1 million in cash to the "OTC Exchange Shop" at Room 18, 27/F, No. 1 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong on April 17. The shop looked no different from an ordinary mobile phone parts shop, and Mr. Luo did not notice anything unusual, so he made a transaction with a woman in the shop. During the transaction, Mr. Luo recorded the banknote numbers and took a video to try to ensure the safety of the transaction. As a result, the USDT transfer was delayed, and the cash was forcibly taken away.
Half an hour later, Mr. Luo's boss still hadn't received the USDT, but he insisted that the transfer had been completed. Mr. Luo called the police, but they were arrogant, claiming they were "not afraid of law enforcement," and forcibly took the cash away despite being surrounded by many people.
Hong Kong Legislative Council member Wu Jiezhuang expressed shock at the incident and pointed out that there are currently more than 200 unlicensed virtual currency exchange shops in Hong Kong, which only need business registration to operate and are not subject to any financial regulations. These shops usually attract customers with "good exchange rates and fast procedures", but there is no financial guarantee and may even involve money laundering or fraud. In this case, the shop only "pretended" to conduct identity verification, but in fact there was no compliance process.
He called on citizens not to patronize unlicensed OTC stores and to choose licensed exchanges. The government should speed up legislation to regulate the virtual currency over-the-counter (OTC) market.