Cryptocurrency schemes have been making headlines over the past few years but this one might be one of the most bizarre yet. A chief executive officer who was hired to promote the HyperVerse crypto fund may have not actually existed.
An investigation into the HyperVerse crypto scheme originally revealed thousands of people have lost millions of dollars to the fund, which was promoted by the Australian entrepreneur Sam Lee and his business partner, Ryan Xu, two of the founders of the collapsed Australian bitcoin company Blockchain Global.
A man named Steven Reece Lewis was introduced as the chief executive officer of HyperVerse at an online global launch event in December 2021. Promotional material released said that Reece Lewis was a graduate of the University of Leeds, held a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge and had worked at Goldman Sachs before being recruited to head HyperVerse.
Later on, it was confirmed that Reece Lewis never attended the University of Leeds nor the University of Cambridge. No records existed of Steven Reece Lewis on the UK companies register, Companies House, or on the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Goldman Sachs could find no record of Reece Lewis having worked for the company.
An X account created for Reece Lewis had been set up a month before he appeared in the HyperVerse video launch and was used to promote the scheme on the platform for just six months before the account became inactive.
While the company praised Reece Lewis’ “strong performance and drive,” no record of the man seems to exist. As to where this scam ends up, only time will tell.