Ex-Mine Digital CEO Faces Charges Over $1.5M Embezzlement

Grant Colthup, the former CEO of ACCE Australia, is facing a single fraud charge following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Colthup, who appeared in the Magistrates Court at Ipswich, Queensland, was charged with embezzling $1.47 million (2.2 million Australian dollars) from a customer.

$1.5M Bitcoin Payment Goes Missing

From May 2019 to September 2022, ACCE ran a digital asset exchange platform that provided cryptocurrency trading services to customers under the “Mine Digital” brand.

According to a press release, the incident dates back to July 2022, when a customer paid the company $1.5 million to buy Bitcoin but never received the cryptocurrency.

ASIC alleges that instead of delivering the Bitcoin, Colthup used the customer’s funds to cover the financial liabilities of ACCE and to purchase cryptocurrency for other clients.

The charge, filed under Section 408C of Queensland’s Criminal Code 1899, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The case has been adjourned to December 16, 2024, and will be prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

ACCE’s Legal Troubles

This legal development is just one of many controversies that have affected ACCE and Mine Digital. The company collapsed in September 2022, leaving creditors scrambling to recover approximately $16 million in owed funds.

The collapse of the Queensland-based exchange was handed over to administrator Brad Tonks of PKF in September 2022, just weeks before the infamous crash of the U.S.-based exchange, FTX.

At the time, a local publication, the Australian Financial Review, reported that Tonks’ subsequent investigations of the company had brought to light troubling financial discrepancies, including limited records, an irregular balance sheet, and the existence of just $20,000 in assets.

In a statement to creditors, The PKF partner noted that substantial digital assets appeared to have been transferred out of ACCE before the administration, with insufficient records available to track the transactions.

“Investments made by clients into digital assets do not appear to have been recorded on the company’s balance sheet,” Tonks reported.

Furthermore, the collapse occurred shortly after a legal dispute with a self-managed superannuation fund regarding a separate $1.6 million investment loss in 2020. The fund alleged that ACCE did not take adequate steps to prevent a social engineering scam known as “500 Investments.”

Although the exchange defended itself in this case, the incident contributed to its increasing legal challenges.

By December 2022, PKF had been appointed as the official liquidator of ACCE, and Tonks began legal proceedings against Colthup to recover the $16 million owed to creditors.