A newly elected Reform UK councillor has been identified as a key promoter of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency venture, a project described in US court filings as a fraudulent $1.89 billion pyramid and Ponzi scheme. Despite her history with the project, Susan Lawrence now serves as a member of the Wolverhampton city council’s audit and risk committee, a body responsible for reviewing financial governance and managing multi-million-pound budget risks. Which was named in US court documents as an alleged “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” that cheated investors worldwide out of a “staggering” $1.89bn (£1.41bn), susan Lawrence was one of the main UK promoters of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency scheme.
The HyperVerse scheme operated between 2020 and 2022, targeting investors across the UK, US, and various nations in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. The collapse of the platform left many participants unable to retrieve their money. In tragic instances, investors who had secured bank loans to fund their participation reported severe distress, including cases of self-harm, upon losing their life savings. And also targeted investors in developing countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific before its eventual collapse left many people unable to access funds, the HyperVerse scheme spread through the US and the UK from 2020 to 2022. In a 2022 presentation, Lawrence addressed members of the HyperVerse community who were concerned they could no longer access their invested funds.
Despite a 2021 warning from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)—which cautioned the public to avoid the firm and beware of scams—Lawrence continued her promotional activities. She appeared in multiple webinars and lengthy videos, working alongside Desmond Amey, a UK-based promoter whose company was later forcibly liquidated by the high court for funnelling millions into these platforms.
Lawrence’s involvement extended to other projects linked to Sam Lee, an Australian bitcoin entrepreneur who relocated to Dubai in 2021.
Lee was hit with criminal and civil charges in the US in 2024 for his role in HyperVerse, though he has denied all allegations.
Lawrence reportedly travelled to Dubai to meet with Lee and was publicly identified as a “super leader” for his platform, Vidilook, a title typically awarded based on the volume of new recruits brought into the network.
Records indicate that Lawrence promoted iterations of the network even after they were flagged by US federal authorities. Regulators described these follow-up ventures as fraudulent operations that generated no revenue from actual products, relying entirely on capital sourced from new investors. US authorities said: “It does not sell or purport to sell any actual product and has no apparent source of revenue other than funds received from investors.”. Cllr Lawrence has no current involvement in any of these companies or any similar schemes.”.
A spokesperson for Reform UK defended the councillor, stating that Lawrence was herself a victim of the scam who lost tens of thousands of pounds from her personal pension. The party claimed she joined subsequent projects like HyperNation in an attempt to recover her losses and emphasized that she has not been questioned by authorities regarding her links to these entities.
When asked whether the party’s vetting procedures had identified her background before her election, Reform UK did not provide a response. The councillor, who continues her oversight duties on the city council, did not offer a comment when approached for this story.
