Bitcoin Forum

https://www.ccn.com/90-million-envion-ico-illegal

The Envion scandal was one of the most dramatic sagas to unfold in the cryptocurrency space, and it’s not over yet.

Swiss regulators have ruled that the crypto mining firm behind the $90 million ICO in 2018 participated in illegal activity. Specifically, Envion AG unlawfully received public deposits from 37,000 investors according to the FINMA regulatory authority.

Based in Zug, the company is now being liquidated, hopefully, to compensate investors.

Delusions of Grandeur

The project started out with great potential. To most onlookers, it seemed like a genuinely promising opportunity in a space rife with half-baked ideas.

A high-functioning cryptocurrency mining unit that users could buy shares in was the basic concept.

With an experienced CEO, solid partnerships, and what appeared to be a working product in production, the stage was set. It wasn’t to be.

The project fell apart after what was described by many as a hostile takeover on the part of Matthias Woestmann, the CEO.

The founders accused Woestmann of squeezing them out of the company and embezzling funds. They set up a website to communicate with investors.

Suddenly a relatively unknown figure, Michael Luckow, seemed to be a crucial member of the team.

Meanwhile, Woestmann accused the founders of printing off 40 million excess tokens (later saying 20 million) and selling them, taking the money for themselves. This is the reason, he claims, that he pushed them out.

The founders accused Woestmann of changing aspects of the ICO prospectus, which appeared to be true.

A complaint was filed in Germany and Swiss regulators also began working on the case.

I've been scammed by them too, I found this claim online:
https://efri.io/envion-funds-recovery-case

I don't know if it reliable, they'll charge you only if they can get back the money, you have 2 options: 250 EUR or 10-15%.

Hope we can get back our money.

I was one of the victims of this unfortunate scam. I was part of the many who promoted the bounty in social media but I did not get anything out of that. I invested around $100 in buying some tokens because I was made to believe that this was the next big thing in Bitcoin mining business.  The project was really convincing as it was based on a doable and viable idea but something sinister was going on behind the scene. I am really hoping that victims can be refunded with their money no matter how small. This can be a big justice for all of us and a big reminded that people behind any project have the big responsibility to the people who supported and believed on them. Envion is now part of the list of big cryptocurrency-related scams and this is actually sad.

I really believed in the project too, their marketing campaign was sick, I invested around 1200 USD...
I filled the claim on the link I've sent, I'll post here if I get any answer from them.

So sad to hear that I hope all investors get a refund, because I as a bounty hunter also doesn't get anything from the bounties they hold and it seems that the project is indeed a scam and I hope they deserve punishment from it

This is good news. wish that investors get back money invested on this ICO and i wish also that if will be possible that all investors who invest on scam ICO to get their money back.

t is necessary to punish such companies and developers. They collected a lot of money, and simply did not give either investors or bounty hunters. Nonetheless, Envion trades further at the Coinmarket. But investors do not get anything further.

I hope all refunds will be invested in Bitcoin and ETH from the people again, if they get really a refund they have finally made a profit but I don't know if the funds were converted to fiat when Envion received the funds. And I hope the responsible actors will be took to prison for their scam attempt or at least pay a high fee for their damage of crypto.

 Can still wait a long time,or do not get back the money,because even if the exchange does not always return the money,or fed Breakfast,and it is not clear when to give,here is an example cryptopia exchange promised until the end of March all losses to investors to return,now may and silence!

This time the investors are very lucky. Because the company is based in Switzerland and the authorities there are very efficient in pursuing financial crimes. But my only concern is that the legal process may go on for quite some time, and along with that the expenses may mount. Hopefully, everything will be settled in a proper manner and the investors will be reimbursed.

I was one who invested in this project, even though I didn't invest in a very large amount but I was still waiting for my money to return, I also didn't know whether they would return all of our money (investors)
we can only wait

What a very sad news, scammers all around cryptocurrency, this is now getting out of hands, different project coming up with the aim of scamming investor by luring them to buy ICO, I believe all this will be wipe off very soon in cryptocurrency space

wow, again a very large amount of money. 90 million is a really incredible amount of money for me. already sad, even with such buzz there are still fraudsters in the crypo area.  :'(

I do not think refund process is going to be easy that is why i sold my evn in loss because we do not know when refund process will start and how much is going to be refunded because i have no hope of full refund i think even if refund happens it will give 10 to 20 percent of original investment which is not enough.

This is a right move and honestly it would be good to get the culprits sent to jail for such a huge financial crime. It's because of such theft that I no longer participate in ICOs. I lost quite a lot in the past on ICOs and made my decision that it's a no-go area. Putting these idiots behind bar will somehow restore confidence for some people.

You are not totally wrong that refund might not get to every body who have lost but a little patience might see luck shine on you. Making such hasty decision sometimes is not helpful, just for next time but is your choice anyway.

Um. I wonder how this will end. I hope that people did not take loans and did not get into debt in order to invest in this company.

This has been dragging for so long that I would not be surprised if the refunds are issued not earlier than in 2020. I would assume that a nice chunk of investors probably already "forgot" about it and they moved on, so an automatic refund would be a most welcomed surprise for them.

Several projects that were born with foundations ended up with some rich people and the token was worthless. I do not think this is the best way since there is still no ideal model of self-governance. Foundations are always politicized and dominated by a few people

This kind of model needs to change. Decentralize development and have a kind of bonus for those who contribute the most. But this bonus needs to be developed in a model close to the contracts.

Decred has some very interesting bonus and voting templates. That often work better than leaving decision making for a company or foundation.

Yep, ICO is now just a joke. A way for scammers to make money easily and those refunds would probably to take years

Just as similar with other Previous scam ICO as well where they do accumulate huge token sales and collected millions of USD but didnt get something back with their investment.Im not too negative with these situations,
ive been a victim too with this shitty ICO's not to this one but do have the same situation and talking about refund or compensation? It wont really be that easy for sure.Tracking them out would be hard
and fighting for legal aspect will cost up money.Who would be the one to process offline?

A lot of platforms tends to be trusted,  the roadmap , the teams, end up being a scam. But this keeping going on , why investors tends to stop participating in ICOs . This is very alarming.

I also think that investors are relatively lucky because Switzerland will investigate this case to the end and I hope all investors will return their funds.In the end, how much can you deceive people with impunity.To be honest when it comes to scams I really in these cases just dream about regulation.

The numbers are really fluffy. But if we want decentralized system, we must accept it fully. Where there is freedom, there will be all kinds of scamming. Sure, regulations can get a little against it. But, centralization will change the nature of this system.

They are really fortunate investors to get back their investments. But how long will the wait be? But still good news for them, at least they can get it back. Unlike, other scam ICOs, the hope is already out of the question. Just be careful on your investments. Those scammers don't care how you get your hard-earned money.

Those investors clearly deserve more. They should really find a way to refund those because money is not just picked up from everywhere. We should respect those investors just like we respect the project managers. But to be honest, they are lucky that they'll get their money back because most of the time, these scammers are literally becoming ghost after a they promised something.

I really hope with these their created drama of another person stealing and looting investors assets is not going to affect refunds because the way i see it they are trying to come up with an excuse to go with your money I hope someone investigate this and make some reports on whats going on there

If I can remember correctly, this was a news in my local newspaper. That is how cryptocurrency image is gking to be lost. Media too represents the news in a very worse way which distract people from cryptocurrency.

Yes, I heard for this project and even wanted to invest in it, but then I understood that mining is not the most reliable investment since it is not at the legislative level, and I saw this in the example of this company, of course, I sympathize with investors, but I hope that everything the project will return them their investments.

I wonder how the spokesman could said that the founders haven't engaged on any illegal activity while investors already feel disappointed. I think, there is no bright future for this project anymore since they have lost investors' trust. If the team keep continue the project, they may face more trouble in the way of development.

Oh that's really bad. Someone tried convincing me about Envion but I followed my instincts, after due diligence, I took a bow. Is there no way to permanently eradicate scams like this? These issues keep sprouting, dragging crypto to the mud.

What I can deduce happened from the Op write up was probably misunderstanding between team members of which greed was the real culprit. They allowed greed to take the most part of them. I can't see why a team of that caliber and after receiving such great amount can not implement what they planned except only the plan from onset was to scam investors.