According to the Chinese news agency Caixin, the founder of OKEx cryptocurrency exchange, Mingxing Xu, also known as Star Xu, was detained and interrogated by the police in connection with the situation in the organization he heads. According to the official report, he was detained at least a week ago (October 9-10) and had to be absent from work for some time.
All this became known almost immediately after the exchange suspended the possibility of withdrawing cryptoassets by users. According to OKEx representatives, there took a place a situation, in which the holder of private keys was forced to cooperate with the Public Security Bureau in the framework of an ongoing investigation. At the same time, it was stated that OKEx is no longer associated with the activities of the OK group, in which Star Xu was listed as the head, so he would not comment on the situation around it.
It was also stated that: "We have no right to disclose details of the investigative actions, but we assure users that their assets will remain safe, and all other functions are working and will work unchanged."
According to CEO - Jay Hao (Jay Hao), the suspension of withdrawals is a forced temporary solution, made in view of the "safety of users and their assets."
“We, as the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, have no right to compromise the security of our clients. And we will do our best to fully restore the functionality as soon as possible. When this happens, we will definitely inform you. "
To be honest, it's not clear what's going on at OKEx. Since the holder of private keys cooperates with the investigation, it means that the official authorities needed to get access to suspicious wallets. According to some reports (Co-founder of 8btc Red Lee) - involved in money laundering. This indirectly confirms the withdrawal of large amounts of BTC from the exchange shortly before the suspension of transactions. It is not clear what Star Xu has to do with it, cause he's not the holder of private keys and isn't responsible for the security of OKEx. It is believed that his detention is connected exclusively with the reverse listing of OK group, and does not apply to the situation on the exchange. Importantly, in 2018 he was already detained on suspicion of fraud using cryptocurrencies. So we will follow the development of events.
Published on the EXBASE.IO based on materials from cointelegraph.com