Hong Kong’s “Coin Young Master” is set to become “Coin Young Inmate” after a court today decided to jail cryptocurrency promoter Wong Ching-kit for 10 days over a stunt in which he threw tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of bills from a rooftop in Sham Shui Po, sparking chaos in the street below.
Wong had pleaded guilty to causing a nuisance in a public place over the incident last December, in which he filmed an associate showering the street with banknotes in an apparent bid to promote a cryptocurrency project. He was arrested the next day after he returned to Sham Shui Po in his sports car to hand out money and restaurant coupons.
Wong admitted in court today that on the day in question he had illegally blocked the road with two cars, though his lawyer said the money-throwing incident was just to promote his business, and that Wong was not aware that it would cause a disturbance.
While the court allowed that the offense wasn’t serious, it also noted that the stunt did indeed cause a disturbance, with some 300 people clamoring in the thoroughfare in an attempt to collect the loose cash. Given Wong’s guilty plea, the court decided to sentence him to 10 days in jail, Apple Daily reports.
Video of the stunt shows Wong emerge, inexplicably carrying a bow (like, a bow-and-arrow bow), from a Lamborghini emblazoned with the slogan “FCC Porn” — in reference to a cryptocurrency product and, well, porn — before saying some nonsense about “robbing the rich to help the poor.” (Maybe that explains the bow?)
“I wonder if you guys have ever imagined that there will be a day when money can fall from the sky,” he then says to the camera, as cash starts raining down from the roof of a nearby apartment block.
Bystanders can be heard cheering, and one exclaims, “Wow that’s a HK$100 bill!”
Wong said he made his fortune by investing in bitcoin, and once said on a TVB program that he had made an “eight-digit” fortune on an investment of HK$300,000.
However, others in the bitcoin world have questioned his bona fides, suggesting he is more skilled at self-promotion than investing.
Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, said at the time of the stunt that Wong had a “bad reputation” in the cryptocurrency community, and that the product he was promoting “makes absolutely no sense.”
“He’s not a Bitcoin Millionaire,” he added in a tweet. “He is running a pyramid-like scheme well known in the community.”
