The payroll manager at Bybit Fintech got nine years and 11 months in prison after stealing $4.2 million as an employee. At age 32 the defendant pleaded guilty to dishonest activity and crime advantage taking alongside official deceit.
According to the court files, Ho stole payroll data from Bybit while serving as the outsourced payroll manager from October 2021 until October 2022. During the time she worked at Bybit Fintech she used her power to secretly transfer company cryptocurrencies to personal banking accounts.
Bybit Fraud Funds Luxury
The investigators found she took the stolen funds to live wildly and buy property along with outfits from expensive brands. The finance director at Wechain spotted unusual cryptocurrency transfers in September 2022 which exposed the fraud scheme. After an internal evaluation Bybit employees found the scheme and brought Ho to justice in April 2023.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin showed that Ho spent stolen money to buy luxury personal products and items from Louis Vuitton. Using part of the stolen money she placed a payment of 750,000 SGD ($560,388) toward a penthouse valued at more than 3.7 million SGD ($2.7 million) while retaining the remaining funds.
After the civil court forbade her from using stolen funds Ho broke the order and spent 840 thousand Singapore dollars on luxury items and property which earned her another six weeks behind bars.
Bybit Employee Launders Millions
Ho started stealing from Wechain in May 2022 as her criminal endeavors commenced. She changed Microsoft Excel payroll files numerous times to redirect Tether from Bybit accounts into her own cryptocurrency wallets.
From May to August 2022 Bybit sent 4.2 million USDT to four wallets owned by Ho who unknowingly received these transfers. To hide her crime Ho used part of the stolen funds to transform them into dollars before distributing them through multiple banking accounts. The police discovered she used six bank accounts across four cryptocurrency platforms to steal money through her criminal plan.
Judges considered 30 extra charges during Ho’s sentencing because of her major illegal activities. The prosecution team showed how the suspect planned her crimes ahead of time and expanded her acts due to her success at avoiding discovery.
The thefts continued unchecked until the accused began stealing from Bybit along with other clients due to lack of detection. She must serve nine years and eleven months of imprisonment beginning right after she finishes serving six weeks for disobeying court instructions. The facts show us how companies that work with cryptocurrencies remain at risk even though their financial protection measures need updating.
