A number of potential investors ‘ the largest manufacturer of mining equipment, Bitmain has been misled by news about the participation of firms DST Global and GIC Private Ltd. in a round of Series B funding along with venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. If Bitmain has spread false information intentionally, the top management of the company face criminal prosecution and huge fines, reports CoinDesk.
In June, the information appeared that the Chinese division of Sequoia Capital led the funding round Series, in which Bitmain raised $400 million, after which the investment company had allegedly grown to $12 billion at the same time, local media reported that the venture capital division Mail.ru Group, firm DST Global and Singapore’s GIC also participated.
It soon appeared that neither DST Global, GIC nor have never invested in Bitmain. In addition, the news, the source of which was the famous WeChat-chat “IPO Zao ZhiDao”, that in the funding round Series, the company managed to raise $1 billion from the giants Tencent Holdings and SoftBank, also proved fake.
If the result will be that the top management Bitmain involved in distributing the fake information, then it threatens them with imprisonment up to seven years, a fine of 1 million Hong Kong dollars and partial/full reimbursement of losses to investors.
Earlier, Bitmain officially filed for an IPO in Hong Kong.
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