...and is definitely not an enormous grift that's pouring lighter fluid on our already smoldering planet.
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On June 27, the developers set the governance role to a malicious smart contract, which used a "panic" function to withdraw funds from the Chibi project. They then quickly swapped the funds to 555 wETH (~$1.05 million), bridged them to the Ethereum main chain, and laundered them through Tornado Cash.
Chibi Finance has since deleted its website and Twitter profile. Meanwhile, some crypto influencers who had promoted the project caught heat for doing so.
In the filing, NFID alleges that Prime Trust discovered in December 2021 that it couldn't access some customer wallets, and so "purchased additional digital currency using customer money from its omnibus customer accounts" in order to satisfy withdrawals from said wallets.
Prime Trust reportedly has liabilities of around $82.8 million in fiat currency, plus another $860,000 of digital asset-denominated liabilities. "[Prime Trust] is in an unsafe financial condition and/or is insolvent. Additionally, [Prime Trust's] condition will only progressively worsen as customers continue to withdraw," wrote the regulator.
Now, a report from the New Zealand Herald suggests that the company's director Colin Salisbury took more than NZ$3.24 million (~US$2 million) in customer funds, put it into multiple cryptocurrency platforms over a period of almost two years, and lost it all. Another ~US$800,000 was lost in at least four fraudulent crypto platforms which just "ceased to exist".
We Are Bamboo tried to blame the collapse of their business on the COVID-19 pandemic and on a group of customers whose "actions and online influence have broken us". "Our intentions here are not to play the victim but simply share with you the levels to which this group has gone to ensure our downfall, and made it their sole purpose to attack us, our families, our staff, and our customers with the intent to destroy Bamboo," they wrote. However, a liquidator in the We Are Bamboo bankruptcy says they discovered the cryptocurrency transactions, which explained the true demise of the company.
Salisbury reportedly engaged in the crypto trading because he was concerned that the US dollar might lose value. Guess he found out the hard way what crypto could do for the value of his customers' funds.
Jarryd Hayne is a convicted rapist once known for his careers in rugby league and, briefly, American football. He's serving several years in jail, after being convicted of rape, winning an appeal, being retried, and once again being found guilty.
Hayne is one of several inmates apparently convinced by the Ponzi schemer inmate, Ishan Seenar Sappidee, that he could make them massive returns. Hayne provided around AU$780,000 (~US$521,000) in Bitcoin to the enterprising inmate, who apparently amassed more than AU$2 million (~US$1.3 million)from at least seven inmates.
SpireBit claimed to be partnered with established companies within and outside of the crypto ecosystem, and took on the name of a real company as its supposed "parent" firm. Its online footprint was convincing at a glance, but a little digging revealed LinkedIn profiles using stock photos as portraits.
After NPR began poking around, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning that SpireBit "is an unauthorised firm that uses the details of a genuine FCA-regulated firm when offering products and services. This makes the unauthorised firm appear as if it is regulated."
NPR could not determine how many people had fallen for the scheme, or how much money had been lost in total.
The regulator also demanded Binance return all crypto assets to customers, or transfer them to a company authorized in Belgium. They also noted that "The Crown Prosecutor of Brussels has been informed of the acts that are liable to constitute a criminal offence."
Around $1.25 million in various assets have been stolen thus far, with the largest single loss exceeding $150,000.
The project was real, and they had in fact brought on Bryan as an advisor and investor. Bryan later stated in a YouTube video that he had "[taken] the majority of my Bitcoin and rolled it into this technology". However, the firm scrapped its plans for an initial coin offering in 2019. Despite this, Bryan continued pitching the ICO to friends and family with the promise of big returns. One investor, a college student, he reeled in after matching with her on the dating app Bumble. Various sources told The Hollywood Reporter they'd lost between $5,000 and $25,000, for a total of almost $50,000.
In October 2020, Producers Market cut ties with Bryan. This coincided with Bryan being arrested for felony strangulation and other charges in regards to a drunken assault on a girlfriend, which he later pled down to misdemeanor menacing and fourth-degree assault.
As for the noseprint reader, well, it was found to be a fake product that (shockingly) didn't use a blockchain at all. The company had also promised to build "theme parks for pets", but had not leased any of the sites it had identified.
Now, the cease and desist, filed June 21, has become public. It alleges that "the overall financial condition of [Prime Trust] has considerably deteriorated to a critically deficient level" and that "On or about June 21, 2023, Respondent was unable to honor customer withdrawals due to a shortfall of customer funds". The NFID alleged that Prime Trust "has materially and willfully breached its fiduciary duties to its customers by failing to safeguard assets under its custody and is unable to meet all customer disbursement requests."
Prime Trust had been a partner of the TrueUSD stablecoin, which halted minting on June 10 for undisclosed reasons.
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