Hello, I am warning you about a potential scam here's the evidence I have collected:
SpartaICO is having an ICO to fund Sparta Startups which are both seperate company's and legal entities controlled and owned by the same people.
The idea is that <Sparta Startups> will fund startups to then profit 3-6% when they are being taken over by larger companies in multi-million and multi-billion dollar deals.
That the SPARTA token will be offered but not enforced as a means of receiving services from <Sparta Startups> to the startups affiliated and funded by <Sparta Startups>
Though this is optional and fiat money can be used aswell. It is also mentioned that each startup is independent and can fundraise for themselves in the conventional way.
The idea is that SpartaICO will issue a token swap, Ethereum for their token SPARTA. Now here's the problem with this.
In their whitepaper and I will quote the following is mentioned: ''<>'' are used to indicate which company and relative labels concering anything other than that.(their whitepaper)
<SpartaICO> is launching a token sale, consisting of swapping Sparta tokens for Ethereum tokens, then selling the Ethereum tokens, the objective for this crowd sale is to raise funds that will be directed mainly towards the development and growth of a pool of 300 technology startups, and the development and growth of an ecosystem around these startups
The tokens issued are not debt, equity or derivates, it will not receive future benefits, nor grant acces to any financial securities
However this is not enough to keep us safe from the hammer of financial regulators, fines and penalties, this is why we took the strategic decision to declare our token a <thank you token> with no value
To be compliant with SEC, and other financial regulators, and to avoid having our token being labeled as a financial security, we <Sparta ICO> should have no economical return possible for the token holders, that is why, our token will have no value, will represent nothing, and will offer nothing of value
Doing otherwise would put our company in legal trouble, with the possibility of fines and penalties that would render our company insolvant and render the token worthless
It's not like they didn't just mention that the token has no value anyways and is only a thank you towards investors/donators.
We <SpartaICO> are thus offering a token with no value by itself however ''Sparta Startups'' an independent company, along with its partners will offer services in exchange of this token.
Now they have basically set themselves up to carry 0 responsibility towards the investor, the use of the coin and any regulations and legal liability.
They will go on in their whitepaper about how <sparta startups> will purchase the token from <SpartaICO> and that <SpartaICO> can't be held responsible for <Sparta Startups> to mass buy the coin and that it won't classify as a buy back because its a legal different entity/company.
Now in regards to the use of the coin as a means of payment for services with <Sparta Startups> they state it will act as credit/loyalty points or pre-paid as for example with a phone. Any of these suffice.
They say that any startups which are independent entity's from SpartaICO and Sparta Startup still have the ability to raise money conventionally and that the use of SPARTA token is completely optional, though that is not explicitly said when you refer to it as loyalty points. THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE SAYING.
Now there's also sparta credits which can be in turn obtained using sparta tokens but in my opinion this is arbitrary and only serves to make it seem like the TOKEN will have actuall purpose and make people buy/invest/swap/donate.
They will go on about this a bit more making investors believe the SPARTA token will have actuall purpose by a supposed demand from the entity <Sparta Startups>
Either way it won't really matter, SpartaICO is Sparta Startups only not in legal terms, the founders are the same (there's more.. a lot more...)
Now they mention they have hired an escrow service, called Paidwiz, with a website
www.Paidwiz.com (hold on, it is about to get very interesting)
For those unfamiliar with escrow service and escrow ensures payment between two company's acting as an independent party to ensure fairness etc etc.
Most of the time an escrow won't release funds untill certain milestones or other terms are met. These terms are not specified anywhere in the whitepaper.
They do MAKE IT SEEM like they are specified, but that is not the case.
In the section: Full transparency which is the second last section you will read that they detail here the approxiamte distribution of funds.
Here we go:
However the distribution of the team tokens will be done based upon founder sole discretion and employees KPI results. Token holders will be asked periodically to vote on the release of funds for various objectives.
The funds of ether will be distributed in the following manner:
Here you get a list like how % goes to staff, marketing etc.
Now the release of funds upon founder sole discretion, they don't mention which founder is it Company A the SpartaICO, is it company B Sparta Startups? OR AND YOU MIGHT HAVE GUESSED IT IS IT COMPANY C PAIDWIZ WELL LETS HAVE A LOOK AT THEIR SITE!
DIRECTLY COPIED FROM THEIR SITE IN ''ABOUT''
PAIDWiz is in Alpha stage, we are not open to public. Our platform is made available for exceptional circumstances!
We are a member in Sparta Startups accelerator ^, and we are making our platform available exceptionally due to a demand by Sparta Startups. PAIDWiz is a payment gateway, and maybe much more than that.
Our team is currently indistinguishable from Sparta Startups team, due to the nature of incubation and acceleration ^ offers, that means that ^ team are taking care and guiding our development and will do with our growth, till we are able to fly on our own.
So basically if you read this correct they are saying that they are the same people from SpartaICO and SpartaStartups.
There are social media options which would normally lead to an account but there are none.
The team <SpartaICO> and <SpartaStartups> consists of two people who want to manage 300 startups?
I may be mistaken and they are all honest but even then the potential of being scammed, robbed of your money is incredibly large. They have secured themselves from all legal and regulatory liabilities, they issue their token clearly pointing out that it has no value and should be considereda Thank you. They say it is a tokenswap.
The only one's that are going to buy from you is SpartaStartup, there's no guarrantee they will as there's no guarrantee that any startup in their incubator will use the token.
There's no guarrantee that they will enlist any startups.
To put the cherry on the cake I will go trough the supposed startups in their incubator currently:
Startupz.org same team as Sparta Startup won't see anything independent here.
Fightscancer.org page is amateuristicly made and doesnt hold any info, about page is empty
PaidWiz.com I just told you about this, this is SpartaICO and Sparta Startup, just not legally. (also serves as their escrow service with sparta being their only employer and not accepting any other jobs.. why oh why?)
marketingants.com - not open to the public
2fund.org also a crowdfunding company... doesn't hold any information - not accesible to the public
Kidzi.net - some internet site tells you to manage your kids internet, mobile acces and whatnot - because we love our kids. No about page, nothing just a single page with some crappy slogan.
Opinionz.net also just a frontpage, no about or anything else.
biolabz.com - Just a homepage, clicking anything results in an error - about page shows error (my internet was fine)
babymy.org - again nothing really to see
Justicefund.net again just a homepage, clicking anything results in errors.
www.hidevideos.com just a homepage
arads.net just a homepage, clicking anything results in errors
answerzis.com just a homepage
languageshub.com just a homepage
sos1.net just a homepage - clicking anything results in an error
And it ends there. may I add that all of them have ''rounds raised'': 40k/1m$/ Spartastartups
And all of them have some stupid stuff at the question ''why sparta?'' answers like : we need fighters, excellence seeks excellence 7 OF THEM 7!!!! answered FROM A TO Z
what kind of answer is that? 7x the question ''why sparta?'' was answered from A to Z
Their sites all come up with either nothing or their team. the whitepaper is filled with basic grammar mistakes. It's a mess to look at.
In my opinion; this is a scam and I advice anyone who still wants to participate in this ICO to be very very cautious.
