Stephen Harrison, who posed as HyperVerse CEO, regrets $1.3 billion scam

The actor who was hired to impersonate the CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency fund HyperVerse regrets the scam worth about $1.3 billion, writes Ars Technica.

This is a scandal surrounding an Englishman named Stephen Harrison, who lives in Thailand. For a long time, he had been impersonating the CEO of the Rhys Lewis fund. HyperVerse promised investors double or even triple profits, but went bankrupt.

The situation was highlighted in The Guardian. They conducted their own investigation and verified the information about Reece Lewis. The publication found out that the information in the CEO’s resume was not true.

There was no evidence of Reece Lewis’ prestigious education or facts to support his work at Goldman Sachs. It was also unusual that the fund’s CEO’s Twitter account appeared only a month before the video with Stephen Harrison in a fictitious role was released.

The Guardian focused on the fact that the identity of Rhys Lewis could not be confirmed. However, YouTuber Jack Gamble went ahead and found Stephen Harrison. He recognized him in one of his Facebook photos.

Now the Englishman claims that he regrets this story. According to him, the foundation hired him to play the role of CEO. At first, he was worried that it might be a scam and looked for information on the Internet. But later he decided that everything looked normal.

He also added that he did not participate in the HyperVerse scheme to lure investors with false promises of high returns. The Englishman said that he did not misappropriate the money, and that he was paid about $7 500 for nine months of work.

Stephen Harrison also said that he was given a wool and cashmere suit, two business shirts, two ties, and a pair of shoes for the role of CEO. At the same time, he emphasized that he was shocked by the falsification of his data.

“I do feel deeply sorry for these people, I really do,” Harrison said, adding that, “I know it’s hard to get the money back off these people or whatever, but I just hope there can be some justice served in all of this where they can get to the bottom of this.”

It is not yet clear whether the Englishman will face consequences for his role as the fake CEO of HyperVerse. However, Jack Gamble calls his apology to investors “hollow.”