Over a year ago, CCN writer Rick Mac Gillis interviewed Kerim Chikhi, a representative of Bitmine AG, the Swiss ASIC miner manufacturing company. Even then, customers had been waiting months for refunds since their orders were never fulfilled.

Background

At the time, Chikhi confirmed the claims of many customers that they had been waiting “1-2 months” for refunds. When asked if his company had ever shipped a single mining rig, Chikhi said:

"I won’t point out a specific post, but on our official forum, you will find, among many negative comments, customers actively discussing our equipment."

Chikhi pointed to this fact with a note of pride. More recent events, such as the sock puppetry that takes place in the forums of a certain other mining rig company, make even this claim suspect. It is just as likely that every single word of positive feedback was bought and paid for as it is that it was not. He also claimed that 99% of pre-orders had been “cleared.”

Customers Still Not Refunded Over A Year Later

What follows is the story of just one burned customer of Bitmine. It is not actually the story of the first person to contact us about Bitmine’s most recent attempt to rope its customers in one final time, as that customer appeared unable to provide the documents and evidence specific to his case. His initial tip read:

"I purchased a Bitcoin machine from Bitmine AG on December 2, 2013. I have not gotten a machine or a refund as of today. I have sent over 50 emails as well as called the listed number have gotten no response. I have followed the bitcointalk forum on Bitmine and have seen the same thing repeatedly with other individuals with the same issue. […] Mr. Giorgio Massarotto is the owner of Bitmine and has scammed many people out of their money. They have also violated Swiss law by not paying proper taxes, he has emptied out their bitcoin wallet and is no longer anywhere to be found or heard from. The most frustrating part of the whole thing is none of the authorities in Switzerland will do anything about it. I have send countless correspondence to Federal police, local police, tax agencies, and cybercrime agencies and have not gotten any response. I would like to request an investigative news piece to be published to make as many people aware of this as much as possible. I would really appreciate your help on this matter. If there is any other information I can provide please feel free to contact me. Thank you in advance."

Here is a picture of how the BitcoinTalk community feels about Giorgio Massarotto. As you can see, an overwhelming number of these negative comments have to do with fraud.