Former Bybit payroll manager sentenced to nearly 10 years for stealing $4.2M

A former payroll manager for Bybit Fintech has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for stealing millions in cryptocurrency from the company’s accounts. Ho Kai Xin, 32, misappropriated about $4.2 million while overseeing payroll operations and attempted to cover up her actions by falsifying records and lying to authorities.

As reported by local news outlet The Straits Times, Between October 2021 and October 2022, Ho exploited her position as an outsourced payroll manager at WeChain Fintech, a company handling salary payments for Bybit employees. 

Ho Kai Xin deceptively caused Bybit to send her USDT

Court documents revealed that Bybit unknowingly sent a total of 4.2 million USDT to Ho’s wallets over eight transactions from May to August 2022. 

To execute her plan, Ho added rows to payroll spreadsheets and inserted her personal crypto wallet addresses next to the names of actual Bybit employees, deceiving the company’s finance department into believing the payments were legitimately being sent to employees. 

She then submitted the altered spreadsheets to her supervisor for approval, but the latter seemingly had a lot of trust in Ho, typically giving the go-ahead without verifying any data. Once authorized, Ho forwarded the files to WeChain’s finance department, which then saw through the payments.

For cryptocurrency transactions, Ho went a step further by redacting identifying details from the spreadsheets before sending them to Bybit. This prevented the company from noticing discrepancies, which allowed unauthorized crypto payments to be sent to her personal wallets.

Instead of hiding the stolen funds, the former Bybit payroll manager reportedly used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle, purchasing a $3.7 million freehold penthouse, a Mercedes-Benz AMG A45, and luxury items from Louis Vuitton. She moved the funds across six bank accounts and four cryptocurrency wallets to obscure their origin.

Legal consequences: Court starts recovery efforts and probe

Ho’s fraudulent activities were finally discovered on September 7, 2022, when a finance director at WeChain noticed unusually large cryptocurrency transactions. As an internal investigation began, she attempted to cover her tracks by slightly altering the wallet addresses involved in the fraudulent payments.

On October 3, 2022, she was questioned about the discrepancies, in which she blamed the transactions on a fictitious cousin, whom she named “Jason Teo”, and falsely claimed that he owned the wallets receiving the stolen funds. The following day, she cut all communication with both Bybit and WeChain.

Shortly after, she canceled her application for a Build-To-Order HDB flat and instead placed a deposit on the luxury penthouse.

After Bybit started looking into Ho’s financial records in October 2022, the Singapore High Court ordered that all of her assets be frozen so she could not use the money. She continued to spend anyway, even though the court told her not to, and over the next two months she made nearly $840,000 in deals.

Bybit filed a police report and authorities launched a formal investigation. During questioning, Ho stuck to her false claims about “Jason Teo,” leading to further scrutiny. Police spent 140 hours attempting to verify the cousin’s existence before finally judging that Teo simply did not exist. 

In July 2023, the High Court ruled in Bybit’s favor. Authorities recovered 1.17M USDT from Ho’s crypto wallets and $141,787 from her bank accounts. Still, a significant amount of the stolen funds remains unaccounted for. Ho hasn’t made any offer to repay the remaining sum.

Sentencing and contempt of court charges

Prosecutors charged Ho with 44 crimes in February 2024. They include cheating, money laundering, and giving police fake information.

The court found her guilty of contempt on January 27, 2025. Her sentence to that end stands at six weeks in jail. Lastly, she admitted to 14 of the charges against her.

Attorney Gerard Quek of PDLegal asked for nine months in jail during the contempt hearing for Bybit. He said that she should get a different and harsh punishment for not following the court’s orders. Ho asked for a sentence of no more than three months to be served along with her criminal punishment. She was representing herself.

Justice Philip Jeyaretnam ruled that the contempt charge was distinct from the original criminal case. However, there was significant overlap in her actions.

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