43 investors in a cryptocurrency mining business have filed criminal charges against businessman Federico Rosario at the Macau’s Public Prosecution Office, according to Macau News Agency.
Rosario was arrested last Monday in connection with investments totaling MOP20 million ($2.5 million) collected from some 71 investors. 46 of the investors have been questioned by the Macau Judiciary Police, with 43 people, whose investments totaled MOP14.2 million ($1.8 million), deciding to file suit versus Rosario.
Rosario has since posted bail for MOP50,000 ($6,200) and continues to maintain his innocence. His company, Grow uP eSports, facilitated meetings with cryptocurrency mining equipment firm Genesis Hong Kong, Ltd., where investors were promised “significant returns” of HKD200,000 ($25,600) a month for the development of 40 to 60 mining facilities. Only about $815,000 of the MOP20 million has been returned to investors.
Rosario has stated that he had nothing to do with the scam, instead accusing Genesis, of which he has a 10% stake, for not paying investors as agreed upon. Rosario’s mother, Rita Botelho dos Santos of the Macau Civil Servants Association, has filed charges versus Genesis, its partner Forger Tech, and Genesis majority shareholders Dennis Lau and Hong Kit Lau.
Dennis Lau has accused Rosario of altering the investment agreements to require monthly payments rather than annual payments to investors, for which Rosario has said he would be filing defamation charges.
In denying his involvement, Rosario has said that he was victim of a smear campaign by Lau and others in the Hong Kong eSports community, where “baseless and calumnious allegations” have been thrown at him. He noted that Lau himself is already under investigation for fraud, and that the case against him was “an obvious attempt to shift attention from the serious accusations which have been brought against him and which are currently under investigation by the proper authorities.”
Among other investors are Rosario’s father, Frederico Alexandre do Rosario, from local broadcast company TDM, and lawmaker Jose Maria Pereira Coutinho, who invested HKD700,000 ($90,000).
