A former employee of Wechain Fintech, which processed payroll for Bybit, has been sentenced to 9 years and 11 months in prison for embezzling $5.7 million, mostly in cryptocurrency, according to The Straits Times.

Between May 31 and August 31, 2022, the woman falsified Excel records, adding fictitious payments supposedly owed to Bybit employees. These amounts were transferred to her personal wallets and later converted into fiat currency.

Over four months, she siphoned more than 4.2 million USDT. After several fraudulent transactions totaling $5.7 million, she laundered over $4.3 million.

In February 2023, a Wechain representative reported the crimes to the police. Two months later, she was arrested.

She later attempted to mislead investigators by claiming that the money had been transferred by a cousin, whose identity turned out to be fictitious.

Police seized over $330,000 worth of assets from her, including a Mercedes-Benz. Bybit also managed to recover over 1.1 million USDT from digital wallets and approximately $140,000 from one of her bank accounts.

The prosecution stated that she used the stolen funds for a lavish lifestyle, including a down payment of nearly $750,000 on a penthouse worth more than $3.7 million. She also purchased luxury items such as sunglasses, bags, shoes, shirts, and rings from Louis Vuitton, according to Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Bin.

A civil court had prohibited her from using illegally obtained funds, but she still spent nearly $840,000 on luxury goods. On January 27, she was sentenced to six weeks in prison for violating the order.

On February 20, she pleaded guilty to fraud, benefiting from criminal conduct, and providing false information to a public official. Thirty additional charges were considered during sentencing.

Reminder: Four Norwegians have been charged with running a cryptocurrency fraud scheme and money laundering, with global losses exceeding $80 million.