A chief executive officer whose claimed qualifications appear to have no basis in fact was used to promote the HyperVerse crypto fund, alongside celebrity messages of support, as part of a push to recruit new investors into the scheme. A Guardian Australia investigation last month revealed thousands of people have lost millions of dollars to the HyperVerse crypto scheme, which was promoted by the Australian entrepreneur Sam Lee and his business partner, Ryan Xu, two of the founders of the collapsed Australian bitcoin company Blockchain Global. Blockchain Global owes creditors $58m and its liquidator has referred Xu and Lee to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for alleged possible breaches of the Corporations Act. Asic has said it does not intend to take action at this time. The HyperVerse investment scheme is among those that appear to have escaped scrutiny in Australia despite being flagged by regulators overseas, by one as a possible “scam” and another as a “suspected pyramid scheme”. Lee has denied HyperVerse was a scam and disputes being its founder. Guardian Australia has not been able to contact Xu for comment. A man named Steven Reece Lewis was introduced as the chief executive officer of HyperVerse at an online global launch event in December 2021, with video messages of support from a clutch of celebrities released on Twitter the following month, including from the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and actor Chuck Norris. Promotional material released for HyperVerse, which was linked to a previous scheme called HyperFund, said Reece Lewis was a graduate of the University of Leeds and held a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. A brief career summary of Reece Lewis, which was presented in a video launch for potential investors, said he had worked for Goldman Sachs, sold a web development company to Adobe and launched an IT start-up firm, before being recruited to head up HyperVerse by the HyperTech group. This was the umbrella organisation for a range of Hyper-branded crypto schemes. Lee spoke at the launch event as “chairman” of the HyperTech group, while Xu was introduced as the group’s “founder”. The company praised Reece Lewis’s “strong performance and drive”, citing his credentials as the reason for his recruitment. Guardian Australia has confirmed that neither the University of Leeds nor the University of Cambridge has any record of someone by the name Steven Reece Lewis on their databases. No records exist of Steven Reece Lewis on the UK companies register, Companies House, or on the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Adobe, a publicly listed company since 1986, has no record of any acquisition of a company owned by a Steven Reece Lewis in any of its public SEC filings. It is understood that Goldman Sachs could find no record of Reece Lewis having worked for the company. Guardian Australia was unable to find a LinkedIn profile for Reece Lewis or any internet presence other than HyperVerse promotional material. A Twitter account in Reece Lewis’s name was set up a month before he appeared in the HyperVerse video launch and was used to promote the scheme on the platform for just six months before the account became inactive. Celebrity support HyperVerse was promoted at the launch event as a new digital metaverse that would rival Facebook, where members could explore “the new frontier of a galactic universe and bring to life a complete virtual world”. In the video, Reece Lewis encouraged people to become early supporters of HyperVerse, saying the company would “create a parallel system of existence that will change how people live, how we interact with people around the world, and even how companies and corporations will conduct business”. “This metaverse race has just started so I do strongly urge everyone to join us as an early backer and supporter of this foray into the metaverse era,” he said. “In fact I believe we have done all the research needed, and we are poised to launch something that can truly shine in the years to come.” Investors in HyperVerse were able to buy “memberships” with minimum returns of 0.5% a day, with a 300% return over 600 days. Incentives were also offered for recruiting new members. The launch video included a five-minute presentation near the beginning from a HyperVerse “compliance officer” on the terms and conditions of becoming a member, saying it was a “globally compliant company”, while warning that there was a “risk of loss” for those involved. A report from the US-based blockchain analysts Chainalysis estimates consumer losses to HyperVerse in 2022 amounted to US$1.3bn ($1.92bn). Following the online launch the company released video messages of support from celebrities on the Reece Lewis Twitter account, including Wozniak, Norris, comedian Jim Norton and boy band singer Lance Bass. It is unclear how these messages of support were obtained, but all four celebrities are available to hire through the website Cameo, which allows people to pay high-profile individuals to read out a script for them, for anything from a birthday greeting to a business marketing video. The Norris “shout out” to HyperVerse states that “under the leadership of CEO Steven, HyperVerse will be the leader of metaverse space”. Wozniak said: “I’m here to support Steven and HyperVerse” and “I can’t wait for the HyperVerse”. Norton described HyperVerse as a “decentralised metaverse platform with infinite possibilities” and encouraged people to sign up. “I strongly believe Steven will lead HyperVerse to success. Let’s all join the HyperVerse. What are you waiting for? Do it now.” The video messages of support were released in January 2022 as HyperVerse was ramping up its global recruitment drive. Guardian Australia contacted Wozniak, Norris, Norton and Bass for comment but received no reply. There is no suggestion they had any knowledge of HyperVerse’s business model when filming the messages of support and they make no reference to money or investments. ‘The problem is I’m not involved’ Some HyperVerse members said they faced problems withdrawing funds from the scheme in the first half of 2022, with members saying they were then encouraged to migrate to a new platform called HyperNation. A May 2022 launch event video for HyperNation broadcast on YouTube featured masked promoters called “Mr H” and “Miss N”. Reece Lewis did not feature and was not referred to in the video. “Mr H” described himself in the video as an “evangelist in the new world order” and he and “Miss N” were presented as the “official ambassadors of HyperNation”. In the presentation, “Mr H” talked about the failure of neoliberalism and said HyperNation would use new technologies to provide “citizens of HyperNation” with a universal basic income. “I thought I was destined to live a meaningless life but not any more,” he said. “As a citizen in HyperNation I feel liberated and free; I can have full autonomy over my finances with the help of decentralised finance, and best of all my self-worth is no longer determined by anyone else.” Lee and Xu did not feature in the HyperNation launch video and were not mentioned. In a subsequent Zoom meeting with HyperNation members, a senior promoter of both HyperVerse and HyperNation was asked how HyperNation was associated with the original HyperTech schemes. The promoter said the company was “one big entity”. “[It is] one big entity where you’ve got HyperVerse and HyperNation, which is a new entity within the same setup,” he said in a Zoom meeting in early 2022 about the launch of HyperNation. This individual promoter lists himself on his LinkedIn profile as a “VIP5 STAR” for the HyperCommunity, which was the highest ranking available, based on how many people he recruited into the HyperVerse scheme. When Lee was asked directly about his involvement with HyperNation in a Zoom meeting with investors in January 2023, he denied being involved and suggested that he had only worked on the funds management and technology side of the Hyper schemes. “In terms of HyperNation … the problem is I’m not involved so I don’t really have that much else to say that could give you visibility of who Mr H is,” Lee said. Lee did not respond to questions from the Guardian about his involvement in the establishment and operation of HyperFund and HyperVerse before the publication of the previous Guardian Australia article. In a WhatsApp message after the article was published he alleged it included “misstatements” about his role in running the Hyper schemes, but did not respond when asked what they were. He also claimed that “people on the internet continues [sic] to make things up”. He did not respond to further emailed questions that sought to clarify his involvement in HyperNation, or to questions about Reece Lewis. In further WhatsApp messages, Lee said: “There is no shortage of angry people saying I should have done more, but I’m not a public person and continue to be disturbed by people threating [sic] me for the mistakes they made.” Reece Lewis’s identity could not be verified by the Guardian, nor could he be contacted for comment. If you are feeling overwhelmed or need financial help, call the national debt helpline on 1800 007 007 Do you know more? Contact sarah.martin@theguardian.com