Giacomo Merello
Lawyer
Top Skills
- Legal Assistance
- Tax Advisory
- Legal Research
Languages
- English (Full Professional)
- Italian (Native or Bilingual)
- Japanese (Elementary)
- Spanish (Elementary)
Certifications
- Approved Fund Director
Ah Ho as he is commonly known has more than 20 years in the government drugs enforcement agency as an investigation officer. This has enhanced the firm’s criminal litigation section. He was highly commended on numerous occasions by the agency and the Permanent Secretary for the good work done. He retired from the civil service in 2000 as a Singapore Government Pensioner. He is a member of the Honourable Society of Middle Temple and was called to the English Bar in 1998 after obtaining his LLB. He did his local bar course and was called in 2001
Mr Ho has been a practising lawyer for almost 24 years and sole proprietorship of T H Ho Law Chambers. He has done litigation ranging from mainly criminal, civil and family inclusive of Will, Probate and Administration matters, with significant experience acting as defence counsel in cases involving the Misuse of Drugs Act, Penal Code, Companies Acts, and various Employment offences. He is also a lawyer with Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences (LASCO) since 2005 acting for accused person(s) facing capital punishment cases with lengthy trial. He is also on the Panel of Primary Justice Lawyers, Community Justice Centre. Mr Ho has also given talk on criminal procedure to law students at the Singapore Management University.
He has also been a mentor to pupils under his wing at M/s T H Ho Law Chambers, providing them the opportunity to gain invaluable experience in matters relating to litigation, including in cases before the High Court.
Before setting up his law firm M/s T H Ho Law Chambers as sole proprietorship, he was an associate at M/s John Tay & Co, and was a Partner at M/s RGH and Partners. He completed his pupillage with the late Mr. Geoffrey Abisheganaden at M/s Guna and Ramani.
Prior to his career as a lawyer, he was a distinguished investigating officer at the Central Narcotics Bureau and received multiple commendations awards, the Good Conduct and Long Service Medal.
In between his 44 years of working experience, Mr Ho has seen and work with various type of personality and personnel.
Summary
Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, DLT, FinTech & RegTech
International Comparative Law. Legal and regulatory consulting on digital tokens and crypto projects, specialization in research and digital token legal opinion drafting; related corporate and structural planning. Extensive client portfolio and experience (track record available upon written request) both in pre/post ICO, IEO, IDO and other forms of token distributions (e.g. bonding curve, timed NFTs and so on) token and blockchain Governance. In-depth knowledge of compliance and legal aspects of utility and security tokens, Ethereum, Polygon, EOS, BSC, Telos, Tezos, Solana, Algorand, TON and other permissionless, permissioned or enterprise blockchains. DAO/DAC related consulting and Constitution drafting.
Low volatility/stablecoin related legal consulting. Extensive experience with DeFi projects on multiple networks and blockchains.
Leading legal consultant for NFT and play2earn/gamefi platforms.
Payment Services/Exchange/Crypto Dealer/Broker Licenses related consulting and application support (Singapore PSA – Standard and Major Payment Institution, Bahamas DARE, Antigua DAB, Estonia Virtual Assets Services, Republic of Georgia VASP and others).
Crypto-strategy or hybrid traditional-crypto investment/private/hedge funds setup in different jurisdictions, including Caymans (Private Licensed Funds) and Bahamas (SMART Funds). In-depth knowledge and experience of International legal and taxation hedging aspects in fiduciary, family and heritage planning, trusts (living and estate). Offshore and offshore corporate setup consulting and assistance.
Consulting and coordination for top Residency and Citizenship by investment programs, in particular Antigua and Barbuda, Malta, Grenada, Singapore.
Tax, management and international legal consulting services for family offices based in the European Union and in broad Asia.
Assistance in international heraldic, nobiliary and dynastic legal matters and in petitioning for honours, awards and dignities.
Baron and Lord of Leslie (Fife, UK)
Addressing titles
Professional: Dr., LLM / Diplomatic: Hon. / Dignitary: The Much Hon.
International Blockchain/Web3 Lawyer, with extensive track record.
Multi-Country Fiduciary, Corporate and Licensing Services. Setup of
Trusts, Funds, Foundations and International Tax Hedging.
Assistance in Commonwealth and international heraldic, nobiliary
and dynastic law.
Singapore – Antigua and Barbuda
Clients
Experience
Marvelux Consulting
Executive Director
August 2017 – Present (7 years 4 months)
Singapore
Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, DLT, FinTech & RegTech International Comparative Law. Legal and regulatory consulting on digital tokens and crypto projects, specialization in research and digital token legal opinion drafting; related corporate and structural planning. Extensive client portfolio and experience (track record available upon written request) both in pre/post ICO, IEO, IDO and other forms of token distributions (e.g. bonding curve, timed NFTs and so on) token and blockchain Governance. In-depth knowledge of compliance and legal aspects of utility and security tokens, Ethereum, EOS, BSC, Telos, Tezos and other permissionless, permissioned or enterprise blockchains. DAO/DAC related consulting and Constitution drafting. Low volatility/stablecoin related legal consulting. Extensive experience with DeFi projects on several Chains.
Payment Services/Exchange/Crypto Dealer/Broker Licenses related consulting and application support (Singapore PSA – Standard and Major Payment
Institution).
Crypto-strategy or hybrid traditional-crypto investment/private/hedge funds setup in different jurisdictions.
In-depth knowledge and experience of International legal and taxation hedging aspects in fiduciary, family and heritage planning, trusts (living and estate).
Corporate Services, accounting, management and Company setup in a number of jurisictions.
Consulting and setup for regulated and unregulated Fund/Variable Capital Fund and other investment structures in Singapore, Bahamas, Caymans, Panama and other jurisdictions.
Consulting and coordination for top Residency and Citizenship by investment programs.
Tax, management and legal consulting services for family offices and real estate focused enterprises based in the European Union and in broad Asia.
Government of Antigua & Barbuda
Special Economic Envoy of the Prime Minister to Singapore
July 2023 – Present (1 year 5 months)
Singapore, Singapore
Promoting the Commonwealth Realm of Antigua and Barbuda legal structures, international financial and VASP/Crypto licences, residency/nomad visas and citizenship-by-investment options, in Singapore and broadly in the APAC region.
dMTV Global
Executive Director
August 2018 – Present (6 years 4 months)
Singapore
dMTV is the brand of the international legal and tax advisory firm dMTV Global, based in Singapore, founded by Federico Vasoli, and of its subsidiary dMTV Europe, based in Malta, as well as the group’s representative offices in Vietnam.
dMTV offers legal, corporate and tax services and advisory to companies, funds and private clients, and co-operates with de Masi Taddei Vasoli, an Italian law firm, based in Milan, Switzerland and Vietnam, that inherits a threecentury old family tradition in the legal profession.
dMTV’s main areas of practice include:
- Foreign direct investments and international contracts.
- Asset protection and international tax.
- Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Digital medicine (Federico Vasoli is the independent general counsel of nextAI Ltd (www.nextai.co.uk) and independent general counsel and managing partner Singapore and Asia
- Pacific of Spektral USA LLC (www.spektralar.com), a Digital to Augmented Marketing & Analytics consulting company, both Harvard Medical School and MIT Sloan Alumni spin-offs).
Regulegal Limited
Founder/Owner
November 2021 – Present (3 years 1 month)
Antigua and Barbuda
Antiguan firm specialised in CARICOM setups and regulation, locally operated in St. Johns, Antigua (Antigua and Barbuda) and member of the Official Business Hub of Antigua and Barbuda.
Digital Assets Business Promotion Board @ Antigua&Barbuda
Official Business Hub
Chairman
October 2021 – Present (3 years 2 months)
Antigua and Barbuda
Promoting the DAB licensing options of Antigua and Barbuda for Web3/Crypto and blockchain projects.
Real Advisors
Tax Advisor
February 2018 – January 2019 (1 year)
Singapore
International Tax Advisory in crypto, blockchain and ICO related issues. Singapore and SEA companies setup, management and consulting.
Kerberos Pte Ltd
Executive Director
May 2010 – November 2017 (7 years 7 months)
Development, management and consultancy in Real Estate ventures and
initiatives worldwide.
Financial assets management and planning.
International tax planning, and advanced accounting.
Immobiliare Lombardo Piemontese SRL
Managing Director
December 2006 – February 2012 (5 years 3 months)
Milan Area, Italy
Real Estate Development and Managment.
Tax planning, accounting, financial assets management.
Studio Legale Giovanni Baldini
Associate Attorney
September 2004 – November 2006 (2 years 3 months)
Legal and attorney services and consultancy.
