ROSARY. An unexpected chapter has been opened in the investigation into the crypto scam that harmed hundreds of investors in San Pedro, Buenos Aires province: this Prosecutors María del Valle Viviani And Veronica Marcantoniowho has achieved something unprecedented in the Argentine justice system, such as freezing $3.5 million in cryptocurrencies, now that he has managed to solve the traceability of virtual money They requested the international arrest of two Malaysians accused of being the masterminds of this Ponzi scam, in which those who hoped every day that “China Ali” would tell them through an app how to invest their money to make money without doing anything were toppled.
The Guarantee Court No. 1 of the Judicial Authority of San Nicolás ordered the international arrest of Deliang Chong And Pang Siew Litwo Malaysian nationals accused of running a sophisticated fraud network. Buenos Aires prosecutors requested that both alerts be passed on through Interpol after discovering that they had already left Argentina.
Chong, 30, and Pang Siew Li are the main architects of the virtual platform RainbowEx, a computer fraud scheme that stole large sums of money from Argentine investors promising fictitious profits on crypto assets.
The methodology was simple but effective: both They created a digital platform that facilitated fake cryptocurrency buying and selling transactions. Investors invested Argentine pesos, US dollars or digital assets in the belief that they were participating in real operations. The money was transferred to accounts controlled by the criminal network and was never paid back. There are other people involved in San Pedro who are already in custody.
The judicial investigation revealed that RainbowEx was not an improvised project. The technical infrastructure was housed Alibaba Cloud servers specifically configured for the Singapore regionwhile email services came from providers that were linked to Company based in China. Everything pointed to a professional company with deep technical roots in Asia.
The simulators
To cement the credibility of the platform, Malaysians coordinated a promotional event at the Emperador Hotel in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires on September 21, 2024. The reservation was requested by the related company ALPHA BASH PLT based in Kuala Lumpur.
The event included the hiring of Polish actors Filip Walcerz And Maurycy Beniamin Lyczko. The idea was create an additional component of trust among potential investors. Payments were made via bank transfer from Malaysian accounts and cash to the hotel.
What distinguishes this case is the transnational dimension of the operation, as prosecutors Viviani and Marcantonio were able to discover through the joint work they contributed Julio Perez Carrettofrom the Cybercrime Unit. When legal authorities began investigating the funds frozen on the cryptocurrency platform Tether, they received contacts from Chinese lawyers interested in releasing the digital assets.
A lawyer identified as Jun Sobelonging to the company Shanghai Landing Law Firmcommunicated directly with the Buenos Aires Attorney General’s Office to inquire about the reasons for freezing crypto assets. Records show that the company specializes in cryptocurrency-related cases.
In parallel, the email addresses used to attempt to access the blocked funds showed a clear geographical pattern: they were created from IP addresses in Hong Kong and used from Laos. One of them (xiaoli319998@gmail.com) was specifically created on June 18, 2024, just three months before the event at the Emperador Hotel in Buenos Aires.
As part of the investigation, a plot involving a character named “La China Ali”, who is described as a person with oriental features who at certain times sent warnings to investors in San Pedro about buying and selling cryptocurrencies. This intermediary has never been officially identified, but his role suggests a structure of local operators coordinated from abroad.
According to official records, Chong and Pang officially entered Argentina during the same period when the event was held at the Emperador Hotel. After this production, both flew to Türkiye, from where they presumably flew on to Asia.
One of the biggest challenges for the judiciary is that not all crypto assets blocked in Tether could be officially confiscated. In order to obtain these funds, the cooperation of those who control the access keys to the digital wallets, i.e. the investigators themselves or their accomplices, would be necessary.
This case exposes a sophisticated criminal modus operandi: Operators of Asian origin that use Argentina as a fundraising market, coordinated from technical hubs in China, with international legal support and logistical movements that position them in multiple jurisdictions at the same time.
The RainbowEx operation was not an isolated incident, but part of a professionalized structure that is likely to replicate the same pattern in other countries in the region. Connections to law firms in China, servers from Hosting in Singapore and local players in Argentina are proposing a multinational network designed to lure Latin American investors with false crypto promises.
After activating the Interpol order and extradition requests initiated through diplomatic channels, Argentine authorities are seeking to have both Malaysians on Asian territory. Then, after the final arrest, the extradition procedures to Argentina begin.
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