Influential business newspaper, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has alleged in an article that cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun is using Dominica to bypass financial regulators in China to reach Chinese nationals who want to trade in cryptocurrencies.
The article, which was published on March 27, said that Sun is attempting to revive the fortunes of the digital-assets exchange, Huobi (where Sun serves as an “advisor), after a ban on crypto trading in China which saw Huobi’s market share fell by 4 percent in 2022 from 19 percent in 2020.
“His plan to increase Huobi’s revenue includes a novel way around China’s crypto trading restrictions, according to some of the people,” the article said. “Huobi has signed a partnership with the Commonwealth of Dominica, a small island nation that is willing to grant so-called digital citizenship, even to those who have never set foot on its shores.”
It went on to say that, “On Huobi’s app, new users who choose Chinese as their nationality while verifying their personal details, are prompted to apply for Dominican digital citizenship.”
“People familiar with the program said Chinese users will be able to trade on Huobi’s platform if they register for Dominican digital citizenship. Customers from other countries can also apply, but Huobi doesn’t automatically direct them to do so,” the article stated.
The article quoted Ben Charoenwong, an assistant professor in finance at the National University of Singapore, who said that “the Dominican digital citizenship program could help Chinese nationals who want to trade cryptocurrencies evade the reach of regulators in the country.”
“It’s easier when you don’t show up as a Chinese citizen; you’re out of the Chinese financial system,” he said, according to the article.
Last year the government of Dominica announced that it had entered an agreement with the blockchain platform TRON with plans in effect for TRON to issue the Dominica Coin (DMC).
The government said the DMC is a blockchain-based fan token which is aimed “at increasing the awareness of the country’s heritage as well as its global presence as a tourist attraction.”
TRON was founded by Sun and it can be purchased with credit card, cash or in exchange for other cryptocurrencies on the Huobi exchange using the Huobi app.
Speaking on the matter on local radio station Q95, Fontaine described it as a “crime,” saying Dominicans were given the wrong impression on the agreement and were not told that Chinese nationals who use the Huobi app are prompted to apply for Dominican digital citizenship.
“This is the biggest crime, I think,” he said. “You cannot engage in this and fool the Dominican public, telling the Dominican public that, oh it’s a fan token because when we first heard about it we were told that is was a fan token that was being issued. So if you want to become a Dominica fan, you just go online, you click and you become a Dominica fan. That was the impression that Dominicans were given.”
According to Fontaine, there is more to the agreement which Dominicans were not told about.
“We were not told that Justin Sun is authorized to sell Dominican citizenship at whatever price that he chooses,” he stated.
He said it is clear the relationship Sun built with Dominica is to assist Chinese nationals evade Chinese regulators and financial system.
“It is clearly the aim of this relationship that Sun has built with the government of Dominica,” Fontaine said. “It has nothing to do with helping Dominica and we need to ask the prime minister of Dominica how much is Dominica making from the sale of those digital IDs, how much is he charging for a passport …”
Fontaine, who has a PhD in economics, said it is easy to to obtain a Dominican digital citizenship using the Huobi app in a five-step process.
“You download the app,” he said. “Number two, once you have the latest version you click on DMC. From there you click on the apply for level one Dominica citizenship…Number four you click on continue with your level two verification. So it allows you as an individual to do your own verification. So you don’t have no, nothing about double checking for certainty, who these people are and so on. You verify yourself online and with that verification you are good to go. You can then apply, get the digital ID, you can then apply for a Dominica passport and even before getting the passport, if you want to trade in cryptocurrency you can do so outside of the reach of the Chinese government.”
Last week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Sun and three of his companies for fraud and securities violations.
However, prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit shrugged off the matter saying Dominica is not involved in Sun’s legal troubles.
He said cryptocurrency is global now and Dominica must take the opportunity to look into it.
“But this is a global phenomenon and I think it is important that countries like ours, we are to look at the opportunities that these things could provide for our young…people looking for opportunities for higher pay and for better standards of living for themselves,” he stated.
The prime minister pointed out that Dominica can ill-afford to allow the global community to runaway with the cryptocurrency sector “and then we trying to 20 years later try to do what many countries have done.”
Read the full WSJ article below.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/huobis-new-boss-shakes-up-crypto-firm-with-china-plan-94d65efb
We have always had a good reputation and this many sounds like he is known. Dominica will always have a perfect name my boy.We earned that.
Is there a country in the world where the people are not interested in the wrongdoing of their government no matter how much it hurts their country and jeopordises the future of their children?
Dominicans do you really care about Dominica and its future? Your Prime Minister is wrecking the country and you do not care. But the day will come when you all will say that you did not know. But it is shall be too late and you know damn well because everyone told you so over and over and over again.
One question for the director of the FBI,FBI agent.Why is it that the international community has never implicated Roosevelt Skerrit in corruption or wrongdoing.Are you telling Dominicans the money laundering case Aljazeera told us about had to do with the Roosevelt Skerrit?What Dominicans want to know,IS Sun using Dominica or is it Alleged that Sun is using Dominica.While the headline says alleged,line 5 says IS,so which is which?
This headline is from Thompson Fontaine and DNO.Wall Street Journal Alleges.Alleges mean there is no evidence,said without evidence.On page of the report it says IS using Dominica.My question is,is Sun using Dominica or is it alleged that Sun is using Dominica.Sticky fingers is trying to fool Dominicans with his BS.There is nowhere the Wall Street Journal mentions Dominica.The report mentioned a small island in the Caribbean.Sticky fingers is lying with his fake news.It cannot be that somebody is doing something at the same time,it is alleged the person is doing the same thing.It is easier to fool the media whore and the Semi- lunatic,dictionary eating Jacka,than to fool a labourite
Guy shut up, you are a nothing; a nobody without a name; an ….. with no name: because someone said “alleged” dose not mean there is no evidence!
In legal terms it means “to claim or assert something as true.” And since you Dog Shi. think that you are smart, let me elaborate on the terminology. If someone is said to be allegedly guilty of something, it means that proof has (is) yet to be produced or they have yet to be found formally guilty by law.
Take it from dumb Francisco Telemaque alleged is commonly used in a legal context, and in journalism in reports about crime or other wrongful-doing before it has been proven or prior to the conviction of someone.
Using the term alleged allows journalists to talk about allegations without seeming to presume guilty and getting sued for libel.
You see ds, you and that foolish clown can call me what you all want but I am steeping in your face with knowledge; dumb clown believe alleged means no evidence, how stupid?
Con:
Now in conclusion; we know how capable and credible is Thomson Fountain: who are you Dog Shi. and the other fool with name; no wonder he is a lying clown.
“Influential business newspaper, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has alleged in an article that cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun is using Dominica to bypass financial regulators in China to reach Chinese nationals who want to trade in cryptocurrencies.”
So, even if Thomson is the author of the article, it would appear to me that he seems to have quoted the Wall Street Journal, so my question to the two bits of Dominica fart, ds, and the dog clown which of the two are more credible ds, and the kindergarten graduate dog, or the Wall Street Journal?
You people are indeed completely mentally challenge, one can see in the clown composition and penmanship this guy doesn’t even know how to write: ds, you have the mental capacity of a child, that is why you are limited in what you write.
Keep on kissing Roosevelt butt, like dogs.
Fontaine you seem to be following into the footsteps of your predecessor. You abandoned two families already and here you are again talking more BS. You are yet to lift the people of Sudan out of poverty. Justin Sun should be the last person on your mind.
Thomson, you are an economist and not a lawyer. Please stick to your knowledge of economics and leave the interpretation of law to Lawyers.
Those at the helm in the USA believe they have the right to control the world, everybody and everything. They are miffed that they cannot control crypto currency and are doing everything they can to regulate it out of existence. But it is something they don’t fully understand and they will fail.
That’s a disappointing smear piece from the WSJ. Whatever one thinks of the CBI programme, “so-called digital citizenship, even to those who have never set foot on its shores” is hardly the description one would expect unbiased journalists to use, considering that (1) it is not actually called that, (2) it is economic citizenship, not “digital”, and (3) it is not dissimilar from programmes found in several EU countries, or the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program offered by the US.
Within the past seven days or so I read news articles from top US papers that implicated Dominica in serious money laundering with alleged criminals around the world and Roosevelt Skerrit knows a lot about all of them.
First: we saw this one where Dominica was involved in a wire transfer from a Russian businessman close to President Putin https://nypost.com/2023/03/15/trump-media-probed-by-feds-for-possible-money-laundering-report/
Then we saw how how a personal friend of Roosevelt Skerrit, by the name of Diezani Maduke forfeited over a $100 million dollars in the US that came from the proceeds of crime. We know Skerrit handed her a Dominica passport and we also know that Skerrit and his wife spent time in one of the mansions of Diezani Maduke https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-recovers-over-53m-profits-obtained-corruption-nigerian-oil-industry
Now we are reading of another corrupt deal involving Dominica and Justin Sun.
I am asking Dominica police what are they…
Well this is GREED on steriods. So you are crooking your chinese friends now. They will deal with you.
South Sudan is on the list of most corrupt nation in the world. Food for thought. 20 years an more you all trying to stain a man name. Move to plan b .
@Dominican
Foolishness you are babbling. The man stains his own name. Come on!!
This guy Sticky fingers is such a Jacka.The wall street journal ALLEGES.There is no proof Dominica was or is involve in anything illegal.The wall street journal has never mentioned the name Dominica.
Conventional wisdom says if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, has webbed feet like a duck, swims like a duck and associates with other ducks, then it is a duck; unless, of course, you listen to a Dear PM who is unperturbed about such a creature being a duck and may well be just a friendly yard fowl. And just to show how dumb the yard fowls are, they think IQ is an abbreviation for “I quack.” Go figure!
Conventional wisdom, lol. https://www.boldbusiness.com/bold-opinions/problem-conventional-wisdom-its-often-wrong/
so long with your conventional wisdom.
Digital citizenship is the responsible use of technology and etiquette pertaining to an online presence. This includes behaviors and responses to others within a digital community in which one is a member. Digital citizenship typically refers to those who use the internet regularly and is part of one or more online communities.
I am at awe with Dr. Fontaine’s impression that it is related to selling passport…. I mean seriously! The issuance of Dominica Coin is no danger to us and promoting digital citizens is a very good thing and am sure Hector would agree with me on that, lets not try to mislead our people please we as a nation have been taken for too many rides, lets educate rather than denigrate.
Thank you for the space DNO.
This guy Thompson Fontaine, should not be talking he is one of the biggest conman ever in Dominica and America, look where he is now working in a Pariah country what does that say about this guy, ” Get the hell out of here!!
I thought the UWP were against the chinese style of authoritarian leadership that for example prevents people from using a fintech (financial technology) tool if they so choose. But now the UWP is AGREEING with the chinese government that it should be a crime for their citizens to use whatever financial technology that they choose.
So the question is whether the UWP is actually for democracy or are they just opportunists who will use whatever issue comes up as an excuse to bash the government.
I know I will get a lot of thumbs down because the opposition side is all impulsive emotion and no brains but I’ve yet to see anything constructive come from them. All they do is bash the government and criticize everything.