The Northern District Prosecutors Office has indicted Steaker founder Huang Wei-Hsuan and three core executives: violating the Banking Act and illegally raising nearly 1.5 billion.

Huang Weixuan, the founder of the Steaker platform, was recently formally indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office on charges of illegally operating banking business in violation of the Banking Law and the Money Laundering Prevention Law, and technical chief Xiu Minjie, marketing chief Lu Tianxin, and chief operating officer Pan Yixuan are also on the list of defendants. (Summary: Steaker repayment announcement: the first and second phases of compensation were issued as scheduled, and 70% of the victimized users joined the dawn compensation plan) (Background supplement: "Steaker announces the "dawn plan" to compensate FTX victims, signing an agreement to refund 10% first) Huang Weixuan, once known as Taiwan's blockchain golden boy and 34-year-old founder and CEO of Steaker digital asset management platform, was affected by the FTX bankruptcy, which caused serious problems in Steaker's capital turnover. A large number of users who participated in the investment program could not withdraw and filed a complaint with the prosecutor. The Taipei District Prosecutor's Office recently concluded its investigation and determined that Huang Weixuan and his team were suspected of illegally absorbing more than NT$1,485 million through the Steaker platform in the name of providing capital protected and poly virtual currency investment solutions, and formally prosecuted Huang Weixuan, Technical Chief Xiu Minjie, Marketing Chief Lu Tianxin, Chief Operating Officer Pan Yixing, and four others on charges such as illegally operating banking business in violation of the Banking Law and the Money Laundering Prevention Law, as well as Steaker as a legal person. Steaker promises to protect capital and rights, touching the legal red line According to the content of the prosecution's prosecution, Steaker has launched a variety of investment solutions to the public through the Steaker platform since 2019. Investors can invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and a variety of US dollar stablecoins such as Tether (USDT), USDC, BUSD, and DAI. According to the risk level, the platform divides these solutions into five types: conservative, robust, and risky at different levels (LV1 to L3). Most strikingly, and at the heart of the problem, these schemes generally claim to be "principal and interest-protected" and offer fixed rates of return ranging from 3.5% to 8.8% annualized. But it is precisely this model of "absorbing funds from an unspecified number of people and agreeing to pay them that are obviously not commensurate" that has stepped on the red line of Taiwan's Banking Law. The Act stipulates that non-banking institutions may not engage in the business of receiving deposits. Although Steaker claims to be "digital asset management", its absorption of users' cryptocurrencies and the promise of fixed returns have been determined by prosecutors to constitute illegal banking operations. The investigation estimates that from September 2019 to December 2022, the platform absorbed nearly NT$1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets, of which stablecoins were the majority, indicating that investors preferred the stable returns they promised. Source: Steaker official website The knock-on effect of the FTX crash Let's turn back the clock, on November 11, 2022, FTX, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange at that time, and its affiliates requested bankruptcy protection without warning, triggering a huge panic and liquidity crisis in the global currency circle. At the time, Steaker had up to $10 million in assets deposited on the FTX platform for so-called strategic trading. The collapse of FTX means that Steaker's huge assets are frozen, which directly leads to the Steaker platform being unable to provide withdrawals to users of some investment solutions. As soon as the news came out, the investor community was in an uproar, and the original trust in the platform instantly collapsed, and many investors who could not get their funds back felt deceived and filed reports with the prosecution unit, accusing Huang Weixuan and others of being involved in fraud and illegal money absorption. FTX starts repayment, what is the status of Steaker compensation? We are aware that FTX has already made repayments to small creditors and expects to commence repayment of creditors in excess of $50,000 starting May 30. Since the main crypto asset that Steaker loses is stablecoins, it is good news that it can receive excess compensation of more than 118%. Looking back at Steaker's previous three-phase compensation package, also known as the "dawn plan", officials said in February this year that the settlement had reached 85%. The third phase of its plan makes it clear that if the crypto assets returned by FTX can be recovered, up to 100% compensation will be paid to the victimized users after deducting handling fees and legal and administrative fees. As a result, Steaker is expected to further compensate its affected users up to 100% and not overpay. But this also raises questions about how Steaker will dispose of the remaining excess compensation after compensating users for 100% of their assets, leaving suspense. Three-phase compensation plan The three-stage compensation plan announced by Steaker (Steaker Dawn Plan) is as follows, and the relevant progress can be viewed on the official website of Steaker: Phase I: Steaker Inc. will provide users affected by the FTX event and unable to redeem the virtual currency originally invested in the Steaker platform to deliver Steaker in the currency of the subscription plan. Ten per cent is calculated as the first reimbursement based on the amount of the currency delivered at that time. Phase 2: Steaker Inc. will provide users affected by the FTX event who are unable to redeem the virtual currency originally invested on the Steaker platform, calculated according to the amount of virtual currency delivered to Steaker at the time of subscription, and then use the equivalent amount of USDC stablecoins as a second compensation. The source of the second compensation is expected to be: 1) virtual assets of Steaker Inc. affected by NSCA. 2) SAFU assets. 3) part of the surplus of the proposed new business model of the Steaker team. Stage 3: In the future, if Steaker Inc. withdraws the virtual currency returned by FTX, Steaker will continue to compensate users affected by the FTX incident to a maximum of 100% compensation (minus handling fees) as the third compensation after deducting litigation and other procedural costs. Related reports FTX repayment update: 98% of creditors will receive 118% cash repayment! Release Chainsight analysis before September at the earliest" Taiwan's Steaker puts 83% of customer funds in FTX? $40 million in total? FTX pays back! The first batch of compensation will be "at the end of 2024", and the registration of claims has been extended to June 30 "Beijing Procuratorate sues Steaker founder Huang Weixuan and 3 core cadres: illegally absorbing nearly 1.5 billion yuan in violation of the banking law" This article was first published in BlockTempo's "Dynamic Trend - The Most Influential Blockchain News Media".