Australia orders travel retraint against former Blockchain Global director

Australia federal court orders travel retraint against former Blockchain Global director

Legal • February 29, 2024, 2:50AM EST

Published 1 minute earlier on

Quick Take

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission secured travel restraint orders against Liang Guo.
Guo and others are currently under investigation by ASIC following the collapse of ACX Exchange.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission secured travel restraint orders against Liang Guo (also known as Allan Guo), the former director of defunct Blockchain Global Limited.

Australia’s federal court ordered, among other things, that Guo may not leave or attempt to leave the country until Aug. 20, 2024, according to an announcement from ASIC yesterday.

The orders followed a hearing on Feb. 20, 2024, and come amid concerns from ASIC that Guo may leave the country. Guo did not attend the hearing.

Guo is currently under investigation by ASIC — as are former Blockchain Global directors Samuel Xue Lee and Zijang (Ryan) Xu — following the collapse of a Blockchain Global-operated crypto exchange called ACX Exchange.

Blockchain Global operated ACX Exchange from roughly January 2016 until December 2019. Liquidators, after being assigned to Blockchain Global on Feb. 11, 2022, filed a detailed report outlining potential breaches of Australia’s Corporations Act 2001 on Nov. 1, 2023.

The next court date is currently slated for March 12, 2024.

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About Author

Adam is the managing editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in central Europe and was a managing editor and podcast host at the crypto exchange OKX's former research arm, OKX Insights. Before that, he co-founded BeInCrypto.com, which he elevated into one of the leading crypto media brands at its peak as the editor-in-chief. Earlier, he served as the editor-in-chief at Bitcoinist.com. Before joining the blockchain and crypto industry, he worked for Looper.com, Grunge.com and SVG.com. He tweets via @XBT002 and can be emailed at [email protected].