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 Is the FBI investigating Justin Sun? Today, the first hot search on Weibo came from the currency circle.  According to a previous report by the American technology blog "The Verge", according to reports from many former employees of Sun Yuchen's company and evidence such as on-chain data, Sun Yuchen organized a market-making team during the Tron period and was suspected of insider trading to avoid the ICO ban.； During the BitTorrent period, almost censorship-free KYC tools were produced to expand user transaction participation. ； During his time at Poloniex, he organized a team to collect small amounts of assets lost by users in transactions within the trading platform and took them for himself, and was suspected of fraud, money laundering through immigration, or evading legal sanctions. In addition, people familiar with the matter who participated in the revelation expressed worries that the revelation would put their lives in danger. At present, the IRS and FBI have been involved in the investigation, and Sun Yuchen may once again use the citizenship of another country to avoid legal sanctions. But then, Justin Sun responded that this was completely a lie by the reporter and a blatant slander of Poloniex’s operations. Justin Sun responded that as a SAFU exchange, Poloniex has maintained the highest standards in keeping crypto assets confidential for customers over the past eight years and has a good track record. In fact, Poloniex is not registered in the Seychelles, the exchange does not operate in the United States, and does not serve American customers. In addition, Sun Yuchen said in his response that he had contacted legal counsel and would reserve the right to seek legal means to deal with lies.  Since missing out on a dinner date with Buffett in July 2019, Justin Sun, whose Weibo account has been blocked, has been chatting and laughing with foreign presidents and frequently interacting with the world's richest men for more than two years. The most striking thing is that in December 2021, he became a citizen of Grenada, a country he had never learned about in high school geography classes, and was appointed as the country's representative to the WTO and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.   On December 22, 2021, Justin Sun stated via Twitter that he was the first paying customer of Bezos Blue Origin. Six months ago, he spent US$28 million to buy the first launch seat of the "New Shepard" rocket ship.  After issuing coins to cut leeks, Sun Yuchen fled in an emergency In September 2017, Justin Sun walked out of Incheon International Airport. At that time, his company Tron had just completed the issuance of the Tron currency TRX and quickly earned US$70 million. However, Justin Sun issued digital currency in violation of regulations. Just on September 4, 2017, seven ministries and commissions including the People's Bank of China jointly issued the "Announcement on Preventing Token Issuance Financing Risks", completely suspending token financing. Justin Sun went against the wind and did not hesitate to go against government regulations. The private equity list standing with him includes many famous figures, including Bitmain CEO Wu Jihan, FBG Capital founding partner Zhou Shuoji, Fengrui Capital founding partner Li Feng, Quantum Chain founder Shuai Chu, and even OFO founder Dai Wei. The verge reported that Sun Yuchen and others knew that the ICO ban was coming, but still chose to accelerate the sale, and finally completed the sale on September 3, 2017. A week later, Sun Yuchen quickly fled by plane to Incheon International Airport in South Korea and left from there. How did Justin Sun hit the right spot to sell TRX and escape to Seoul in time? The verge stated that Justin Sun’s escape route from Beijing to Seoul was a mystery. The verge quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, disclosed the government ban to Justin Sun. It is also said that Sun learned about the impending government ban through his own channels. Sun’s former employees claimed that Justin Sun and Changpeng Zhao were working together (to issue TRX to harvest Chinese “leeks”). Changpeng Zhao did not deny his partnership with Sun but did not admit any more private dealings. However, in 2019, the two also vacationed together on the shores of Lake Geneva. Justin Sun took a flight from Seoul to San Francisco and completed his first escape in his virtual currency career. For Sun Yuchen, this risk is not difficult. He realized long ago that in order to harvest leeks in the virtual currency world, he must escape in time before being caught. Remote Control China team engages in insider trading After escaping to the United States, Sun hid in a high-rise apartment in San Francisco. A few months later, the price of TRX, a token that benefited from Tron, soared. Justin Sun cashed out hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth. He then transferred millions of dollars to his bank account in the United States through a company in Hong Kong called Davidyo Limited. He subsequently spent $140 million to acquire the troubled BitTorrent. It is said that Justin Sun often told the story of his escape in Tron's San Francisco office with great emotion, and his employees were accustomed to it. Often they would receive a message: “Justin is crying again. ” At that time, Justin Sun’s Tron headquarters in Beijing was still operating normally, including an insider trading team. The market-making team is said to be led by a technocrat named Baolong Xu. The main job of Xu and his team is to ensure that "TRX price reaches a certain level that Justin (Sun) wants." Whenever Justin Sun announces good news, he will instruct this team to buy TRX. After the news is announced, the price of the token soars, and they sell the tokens to reap profits. Sun Yuchen made a fortune by harvesting "leeks" users, but he made no secret of his ridicule of "leeks". When a former employee asked him what the Beijing team meant by "market making," he laughed and said, "You know how the Chinese do it, right." He explained that the job of the market making team is to cooperate with the wealthy “big players” outside TRON, “We have a way to push up the price of TRX. These big players are rich but have no brains. You can manipulate them at will. ” After returning to the United States from Tron’s Beijing headquarters, BitTorrent’s chief financial officer talked with colleagues about Tron’s possible involvement in illegal activities. In the end, they came to the unanimous conclusion that they should stay away from TRX-related work as much as possible and remain uninformed and uninvolved. American financial legal experts said that if the insider trading behavior of Justin Sun and Tron’s Beijing headquarters is proven, the maximum penalty is 20 years in prison. Additionally, if cryptocurrencies are not registered with the SEC, selling them to the public is a crime, punishable by up to 5 years in prison in the United States. In order to legalize his issuance of virtual currency, Sun Yuchen once hired a former SEC executive as a consultant. Justin Sun made a ridiculous request for the former regulator to prove that TRX is not a security token but a utility token. The executive refused this incredible request. Subsequently, Justin Sun issued a second token in the United States, namely BitTorrent token, referred to as BTT. BitTorrent has 100 million active users, and Justin Sun obviously had his eye on the huge user base when he acquired the company. Justin Sun hoped that the aforementioned former SEC executive would write a legal document proving that BTT was not an illegal security to protect him from possible charges, but he was rejected. Then, Justin Sun announced the free distribution of BTT to the public, which is the so-called “airdrop”. This marketing strategy is quite dangerous because it is considered to be promoting securities products. Finally, the aforementioned former SEC consultant announced his resignation. Money can make the world go round. Justin Sun finally found a lawyer from Hong Kong and wrote an investigative report proving that TRX was a utility token. Justin Sun became even more adventurous when he acquired the Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange. Poloniex is like a cryptocurrency casino, where all currencies can be traded, it’s very confusing. But in 2018, after Poloniex was acquired by a crypto finance company called Circle, the company sought to purge illegal activity from the exchange and transform it into something close to the Nasdaq stock exchange. Poloniex strictly enforced KYC ("Know Your Customer") rules, and trading volumes plummeted as a result. Later, when Justin Sun took over Poloniex, he decided to restore the previous policy of not reviewing customers. He moved Poloniex to the Seychelles Islands, which does not have any regulation on cryptocurrencies, but the company is headquartered in Boston, USA, and has approximately 50-70 employees. On the surface, this company provides technical services to Poloniex in the Seychelles. Soon Justin Sun demanded that all KYC regulations of Poloniex be overturned. In order to expand the pass rate of Chinese users, Justin Sun even asked for forged "KYC". To this end, he asked the company to establish an automated KYC system, so that no matter what ID the user submits, it will be passed, even if you submit a photo of a duck. One employee said Sun appeared to have turned the exchange into his personal bank. Cunning Rabbit Three Cave In order to escape the risk of being prosecuted by the US government, Justin Sun has been looking for legal status in a third country. In 2018, Justin Sun sent representatives to Malta to meet with the country’s president and minister of economy and industry. Subsequently, Sun Yuchen secretly invested US$1 million to obtain citizenship of the country. Justin Sun rented an apartment in Malta and set up a company called Tron Limited with a Chinese name. Soon, Justin Sun got his residence card in Malta. At the same time, Justin Sun also made two investments of 50,000 euros in Malta, which was to apply for citizenship for his father and mother. There is a saying that Sun Yuchen belongs to the three burrows of cunning rabbits. In addition to Malta, he has also claimed to be a citizen of the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis. In order to transfer funds, Justin Sun opened a large number of bank accounts around the world. In the United States alone, he has at least 13 bank accounts. However, he never dared to reveal that he was working in the cryptocurrency industry when opening an account, because that would most likely result in the bank freezing his account and funds. Justin Sun also opened at least 8 bank accounts in Malta. One of Sun's partners said he did this to pay as little tax as possible. Justin Sun thinks paying taxes is stupid. Before Christmas last year, a former employee of Justin Sun was interviewed by the FBI and the IRS, requesting some information about Justin Sun. The two agencies asked about TRON’s employees in the United States and Beijing, as well as rumors about beautiful models taking Justin Sun around the world, and whether he had any business in private. In addition, other employees working for Sun Yuchen have received subpoenas from the court's grand jury. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which typically handles financial crimes on Wall Street, is seeking criminal evidence against Sun. At present, the official investigation is nearing completion. It is said that the charges against Sun Yuchen include: wire fraud, conspiracy or intent to commit wire fraud, fraud, money laundering, issuing unregistered securities and lying, aiding and abetting crimes, and conspiring to defraud the United States. I’m afraid no one knows what Justin Sun’s final outcome will be. Justin Sun left the United States before the outbreak of the new crown epidemic and has not returned so far. Justin Sun has remained active over the past two years. He has spent millions on art and NFT auctions, including one on a digital image of a rock worth $500,000 and another on a $78.4 million sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. He also revealed that he won a Blue Origin auction for a high price of $28 million and received one of the seats on the spacecraft that flew into space. It is worth noting that Justin Sun also announced in a high profile that he is now Grenada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization. Former employees have speculated that Sun may have acquired the new title to gain diplomatic immunity. However, if the United States does convict Justin Sun, several island countries where he has obtained citizenship have extradition agreements with the United States, so he will not be able to escape prison. This time, can Justin Sun successfully escape the sanctions of the law? Are those old friends of Justin Sun trembling? Pan Shiyi sells his house at 30% off" On March 10, 2022, SOHO China held its first leasing commendation meeting and high-quality housing promotion meeting in 2022. Many real estate brokerage companies from Beijing and Shanghai were invited to attend. At the event, SOHO China Chairman Pan Shiyi expressed his sincere gratitude to the partners who have always supported the company's leasing business, and announced that 32,000 square meters of high-quality properties in Beijing and Shanghai will be sold at a 30% discount, and all proceeds will be used to reduce debt and no dividends will be distributed. SOHO China has launched 32,000 square meters of housing at a 30% discount, covering 9 projects including Galaxy SOHO, Sanlitun SOHO, SOHO Donghai Plaza, SOHO Zhongshan Plaza, all located in the core urban areas of Beijing and Shanghai, covering various office, commercial and apartment formats.  In the past two years, factors such as the recurrence of the COVID-19 epidemic and the "double reduction" policy for education have had a considerable negative impact on the office and commercial building leasing market. Faced with such a huge challenge, SOHO China still reached an average occupancy rate of 83.4% at the end of 2021. Among them, Shanghai Gubei SOHO was fully occupied and Beijing Lize SOHO's occupancy rate also exceeded 80%, both reaching the highest level since the two projects were launched on the market. These leasing results are inseparable from the joint efforts of intermediary partners, and once again confirm the market investment value and strong risk resistance of the SOHO project. SOHO China commended 6 intermediary partners, 4 outstanding real estate agents, and 4 excellent internal leasing teams for their outstanding contributions. In addition to leasing business this year, SOHO China hopes to have more in-depth cooperation with various partners in housing sales. SOHO China said that for prospective investors in the office market, selling at a 30% discount can be regarded as a good opportunity to pick up missed opportunities. At the same time, SOHO China also announced that it will increase the commission bonus ratio to 4% of the transaction volume. Currently, all properties for sale have been listed on the "SOHO China Public Rental and Sales Platform". Affected by the news, SOHO's stock price rose sharply.  In December last year, seven property companies owned by SOHO China were fined a total of approximately 86.64 million yuan by market regulatory authorities in Shanghai for violating electricity price laws and relevant provisions of the Electricity Law of the People's Republic of China.  In March last year, it was reported that Blackstone Group wanted to acquire SOHO China at a price of HK$6 per share, and also intended to directly privatize and delist SOHO China. In June this year, SOHO China issued an announcement claiming that the American Blackstone Group had issued a comprehensive acquisition offer to SOHO China. 91% of SOHO China's equity will be sold to a black market group for a transaction price of approximately HK$23.657 billion. After the transaction is completed, SOHO China will continue to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, the deal was not reached in the end, and the acquisition fell through in September last year because "all parties agreed that the prerequisites could not be met on or before the deadline." In recent years, the core events surrounding SOHO China and Pan Shiyi and his wife have been the sale of assets and the transfer of the entire company. Since 2014, SOHO China has been selling off its assets on a large scale. In 2014, SOHO China sold Shanghai SOHO Jing'an Plaza and SOHO Helen Plaza to Financial Street Holdings for 5.232 billion. In September of the same year, SOHO China sold 100,000 square meters of Shanghai Lingkong SOHO to Ctrip for 3.05 billion. In 2015, SOHO China sold the Shanghai Bund International Financial Center land parcel for 8.493 billion yuan. In 2016, SOHO China sold Shanghai SOHO Century Plaza to Guohua Life Insurance for a total price of 3.22 billion yuan. In 2017, Hongkou SOHO and Lingkong SOHO were sold to Singaporean company Keppel Land and Hong Kong's well-known private equity fund Gaw Capital Partners for 3.57 billion and 4.944 billion respectively. In 2019, SOHO China successively sold 13 office property projects with a total value of 7.8 billion yuan and 2,583 underground parking spaces worth 761 million yuan. Information sources: China Fund News, the verge, Kaijia Finance, SOHO China, Wall Street Insights. Compiled by editors in the financial circle. 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