Sam Lee, aka Xue Samuel Lee, has been detained at Dubai’s Al Aweer Central Prison.

During his ongoing detainment, the SEC managed to serve Lee their civil HyperFund fraud lawsuit.

As per November 5th filings from the SEC, Lee refused personal service at the prison but was considered served under US law.

A local process server hired by the DOJ’s civil division served Lee. As per a filed exhibit from the SEC’s Dubai law firm;

On 10 October 2024, Hadef & Partners LLC were made aware that Mr. Lee had been detained by authorities in the UAE in connection with an Interpol Red Notice issued against him at the Central Prison located in Al Aweer, Dubai.

On 17 October 2024 [an] Officer … attempted to hand the relevant documents to Mr. Lee who refused to accept the same.

Under UAE law individuals in custody can be served by leaving relevant papers with the administration of the facility they are being held at.

As supporting evidence Lee was aware of the lawsuit, the SEC also cites a February 1st, 2024 paywalled article from the Australian Financial Review.

In the article Lee refers to the civil and criminal fraud charges filed against him as “embarrassing”.

At time of publication it remains unclear on who the issuing country is for Lee’s Interpol Red Notice warrant.

A search of Interpol’s website for Lee under multiple versions of his name and aliases fails to return any red notice results.

That said, Lee’s indictment in the US is the only known criminal action he is facing. The US however does not have an extradition treaty with the UAE.

At time of publication there were no updates on Lee’s US criminal case docket reflecting his Dubai detainment.

Lee is an Australian citizen. While we don’t know if Australian authorities have filed a criminal case against Lee, Australia does have an extradition treaty with Dubai.

Alongside co-conspirators Brenda Chunga and Rodney Burton, Lee was indicted on HyperFund related fraud charges in January 2024.

The DOJ alleged HyperFund was a $1.8 billion Ponzi scheme. This tracks with BehindMLM’s HyperFund review, published in 2021.

Pending any further updates on Lee’s Interpol red notice, we’ll keep you posted.