Fraud charge for Mine Digital CEO Grant Colthup over $2.2m transaction

The former boss of a Queensland crypto exchange who once penned an article about how to spot Bitcoin scams has been charged with fraud over a $2.2m transaction.

Grant Colthup, the former boss of crypto exchange Mine Digital, has been charged with fraud over a $2.2m transaction.

The former boss of crypto exchange Mine Digital, who once wrote an article on how to spot Bitcoin scams, has been charged with fraud. 

Grant Colthup, the former chief executive of ACCE Australia, faces one count of fraud following an ASIC investigation in connection with a $2.2m cryptocurrency transaction in July 2022.

ASIC says that between 2019 and 2022, ACCE operated a digital asset exchange platform and offered cryptocurrency trading to customers under the name Mine Digital.

The corporate watchdog alleges that a customer of Mine Digital paid $2.2m to ACCE for Bitcoin but never received any cryptocurrency in exchange.

ASIC further alleges that Mr Colthup used the funds to pay the liabilities of ACCE or to purchase cryptocurrency for others.

The matter was adjourned to December 16 after Mr Colthup appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Monday. He did not enter a plea.

The matter is being prosecuted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions following a referral from ASIC. ACCE entered administration in September 2022 with Brad Tonks of PKF appointed liquidator in December of that year.

Mr Colthup’s article on How to spot Bitcoin scams was published in 2021.

In 2021, Mr Colthup wrote an article for the Canstar website titled ‘How to spot Bitcoin scams’  in which he advised people not to share personal information and ask whether the crypto currency platform had the right licences.

According to a report to ASIC lodged by Mr Tonks in October 2022,  the company was incorporated in June 2018 with Mine Digital launched the following year. 

The company at one point had seven staff with an annual turnover of approximately $40m. According to the report to ASIC, Mr Colthup was responsible for the day-to-day management of the company, which started to experience financial difficulty around July 2022.

The report said the company had insufficient fiat balances on hand, and Mr Colthup could not identify and validate any further digital assets held by the company “outside its ecosystem”. On or around 10 August 2022, Mr Colthup collapsed and was admitted to a hospital in Brisbane. The company ceased trading on August 15, 2022.

Mr Colthup was discharged from hospital on August 19, 2022, and prior to that the company held a board meeting to declare that he was incapacitated.

Mr Tonk’s report said the company’s main income came from commissions and Over the Counter (OTC) revenue. The company made losses totalling more than $4m over the three years to 2022 due to large consultants fees paid during these periods. These fees appear to be in relation to the development of the company’s trading platform.

Originally published as Fraud charge for Mine Digital CEO Grant Colthup over $2.2m transaction