Australia’s financial watchdog is intensifying its crackdown on crypto misconduct, this time targeting a key figure behind one of the country’s earliest and most notorious exchange collapses. Liang “Allan” Guo, a former director of Blockchain Global—the firm behind defunct exchange ACX.io—is now at the center of civil proceedings launched by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
In a statement issued Wednesday, ASIC accused Guo of serious corporate failings, including misuse of customer assets, inadequate financial recordkeeping, and misleading conduct during his tenure at the now-liquidated Blockchain Global. According to the regulator, these actions contributed to the disappearance of over $20 million in user funds.
ACX, once considered a pioneer in Australia’s digital currency trading space, abruptly halted customer withdrawals in late 2019. What followed was a long unraveling that culminated in liquidation and more than $22.7 million in unpaid claims from customers—part of a larger debt pile amounting to roughly $58.6 million owed to unsecured creditors.
This legal action against Guo is part of a broader and prolonged investigation that ASIC initiated in January 2024. But signs of trouble within Blockchain Global had been apparent years earlier. In 2017, ASIC had already intervened to block the company’s initial public offering and declined its request for a financial services license due to governance concerns—red flags that in hindsight foreshadowed the firm’s collapse.
Despite ASIC securing a Federal Court order in early 2024 to restrict Guo from leaving Australia, those measures expired on August 20. Just over a month later, on September 23, Guo left the country. He has yet to return, and his whereabouts remain unknown.
A liquidator report filed in October 2023 by Andrew Yeo of Pitcher Partners shed further light on internal mismanagement. According to Yeo, customer deposits were not segregated but were instead co-mingled with company funds and shuffled into associated entities—a practice that rings eerily similar to the now-infamous FTX collapse and its entanglement with Alameda Research.
Guo, for his part, offered a controversial explanation for the disappearance of Blockchain Global’s crypto wallets. He claimed the credentials for the wallets—reportedly worth several million dollars—were lost when his laptop was stolen during a trip to China in 2019. Notably, no police report was ever filed, a detail that raised eyebrows when first reported by The Sydney Morning Herald in 2021.
Guo is not the only former Blockchain Global executive under scrutiny. Xue “Sam” Lee, another director, faces charges in the United States tied to a sprawling $1.89 billion Ponzi scheme linked to the HyperTech group, which includes the notorious HyperFund and HyperVerse platforms. U.S. prosecutors have accused Lee of wire fraud and securities fraud, asserting he misled investors with promises of cryptocurrency mining returns that never materialized. In parallel, the SEC has filed a civil complaint against Lee and one of his top promoters, Brenda “Bitcoin Beautee” Chunga—who has since pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy charges.
Meanwhile, ASIC continues to press for legal clarity and oversight in Australia’s evolving crypto space. The agency is already pursuing High Court review of how digital asset yield products are regulated, further signaling that enforcement around crypto misconduct is entering a new phase.
The saga of Blockchain Global and ACX.io stands as a stark reminder of the urgent need for investor protection, transparency, and accountability in the rapidly growing world of digital finance. As crypto adoption grows, regulators like ASIC are making it clear that those who bend or break the rules will be held to account—no matter how long it takes or how far they flee.
