Court to hear RM3.3m lawsuit over crypto hack

A hacking victim will get his day in court to recover over RM3.3 million in cryptocurrencies that he lost three years ago.

The Penang High Court in February denied an application to strike out Yew See Tak’s lawsuit against CG Computers Sdn Bhd, an Apple-authorised service provider.

The company’s two directors tried to nullify the suit, with the firm denying any involvement in wrongdoing linked to businessperson Yew’s iPhone X.

Malaysiakini reached out to Yew’s counsel Ong Yu Jian, who confirmed the outcome, adding that no trial date has been set for the civil action.

Yew recently came into the limelight over his separate civil court action in Selangor linked to RM598,000 that he lost from his account with crypto platform Luno.

In the Penang suit, he claimed that the RM598,000 was part of a bigger RM3.3 million loss incurred after he sent his phone to CG Computers for repair in 2021.

According to his statement of claim sighted by Malaysiakini, Yew alleged the hack happened after he temporarily left his phone with CG Computers’ shop on Jan 12 that year.

The 50-year-old visited the shop Switch SC at Sunway Carnival Mall in Penang after he was unable to turn on his phone.

While there, Yew was purportedly informed by the firm’s employee that his phone needed an Apple iOS software reinstallation and he needed to share his Apple ID and password with her for that purpose.

Yew claimed he then shared the details and left the phone with the shop, retrieving it some two hours later.

Crypto raid

On March 6, 2021, he became suspicious when he received a notification that his Yahoo Mail account had been restricted due to a deluge of SMS, despite his phone never having received such messages.

Upon further checks, Yew found he not only had lost cryptocurrencies from Luno but also suffered US$587,000 (RM2.389,383.50 then exchange rate) in losses from his Nano Ledger cryptocurrency wallet.

Yew discovered he also incurred losses of US$58,000 (RM236,089 then exchange rate) from his cryptocurrency account with overseas platform Binance, and RM36,000 (RM146,538 then exchange rate) from his account with international platform Blockchain.

Yew said he did not authorise any of these transfers out of his accounts, which allegedly happened after leaving his phone temporarily with the phone shop.

He alleged that the company’s staff had replicated sensitive personal information from his phone and refused to cooperate when confronted with the matter, which led to the civil suit.

Yew is seeking RM3,369,930.55 in special damages from the company and seven other defendants.

In its statement of defence, the company denied any wrongdoing.

The firm pointed out that its staff gave a statement to the police in which she denied having ever sought Yew’s Apple ID and password.

The company also said it had no knowledge of Yew’s cryptocurrency accounts.

Having failed to strike out Yew’s suit, the firm’s two directors have since appealed to the Court of Appeal.

Yew is represented by law firm Raj Ong & Yudistra while JB Lim & Associates is acting for the company.

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