The Rock Trading Scam www.therocktrading.com Exchange Review fraud truffa

[Serpens66]

Hi, since this is the only english thread which has some recent activity, I will write here, if it is okay for you Coinfan?

In the past I defended therocktrading in few posts and with forum-Trust against coinfan, because I do trade since 2014 every single day at therocktrading and just therocktrading refusing to allow unverified users to withdraw something, was not a surprise for me, every single exchange does handle it this way meanwhile. Therefore I did not believe any other accusation from coinfan.
And I still think that the orderbooks were not fake, my orders were part of it for ~8 years and I did trade at many other exchanges, exchanges which indeed had fake volume. But I may be wrong of course, I just saw no sign of fake (and within the past months with higher prices in orderbook, caused by the withdrawal problems, would have looked different, if faked).

Anyway, I already posted a short story about me and therocktrading here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5440181.msg61788028#msg61788028
I will link between the two threads, because I think it is important what I write.

I have few private chat messages with Andrea from therocktrading that could be helpful for the authorities. I would make them public, but I think this is against the law ... it contains some future plans of therocktrading and an amount of Euro therocktrading was seeking as loan to bridge the liquidity shortage (which I assumed was due to italian vs international bank) and that there would be no problem like celsius/FTX.
Let me know if someone already has contact with authorities or how I can share the chat with authorities

edit:
I was told by an italian trader, that Andrea told him the opposite, that all money would be stuck at international bank.
So this is clear sign of lies and I think legal actions must be taken.

[JollyGood]

Though it is fairly obvious what has happened at The Rock Trading exchange and it is inevitable they will face scrutiny while investigations take place, investors have to ask themselves why they allowed their crypto to be deposited at any exchange rather than on their own devices such as desktop software. Every now and again an exchange falls in to trouble and investors regret their actions only after the event but by then it is too late to do anything about it.

Apart from the manner in which they withheld funds belonging to Coinfan, The Rock Trading had a very good reputation in this forum and if they had managed to return the funds in a manner that was acceptable to both Coinfan and Rock Trading, then they both could have moved on. Exactly what happened at Rock Trading can only be explained after their CFO (eliale) posts to explain or after the Italian authorities put out a statement.

edit:
I was told by an italian trader, that Andrea told him the opposite, that all money would be stuck at international bank.
So this is clear sign of lies and I think legal actions must be taken.

If there have been problems with finances at Rock Trading and they used customer funds/deposits to try to plug those financial holes without consent then there will have to be a legal case to answer and we all would expect criminal charges to be brought against the owners and operators of the exchange.

[JollyGood]

Their home page was last updated on 21st February 2023. They have now added the following:

Please note: As of today, February 21, 2023, you can access your The Rock Trading account, in read-only mode, to consult your balance, the movement list and to download the relevant reports.

This update allows those with balances to see the crypto portfolio they have with Rock Trading but they will not be able to transfer anything out while the investigations (or internal audits as they call them) take place. Until then we continue to wait for them to publish the actual scale of the damage in USD$ and the number of customers left out of pocket.

[Coinfan]

Everyone is welcome to post here about the Rock.

According to an Italian site, the Rock Trading lost 904 thousands euros on an hack on an affiliated company OneDime on September 2021:
https://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/padova/criptovalute_invesitre_come_sito_the_rock_trading_paci_barbarossa-7262776.html

I don't have hard evidence to say if this was an inside job or not.

However:

I) The Rock Exchange is a scam, with fake orderbooks, volume and profits. See links to the evidence on the OP updated summary.

II) They used those fake results to scam 1.5 million from investors on a crowdfunding campaign.

III) As I posted, the profits that they reported until the crowdfunding were very low according to official published results. During the crowdfunding, they announced fake results and absurd goals. I don't have the numbers, but I think they paid dividends to their naive investors way above what they really earned. This was unsustainable.

IV) As I posted, they were spending way above what they earned with their costly and fake Holding, with companies that were pure paper and websites, which had no real earnings. Again, this was  unsustainable.

V) As all other ponzi schemes, they announced a second round of crowdfunding. I found about it and made clear that as soon as the new crowdfunding company was known it would be informed about the scam, as well as the Italian authorities. They managed to remove the original news about the second round of crowdfunding. Which says a lot about all of this.

VI) Without the alternative of a second influx of crowdfunding money, this hack/liquidity problem seems very convenient.

VII) Recently, they tried to negotiate a deal with me thanks to the initiative of a forum member which had as a requisite that I had to remove my posts. Now, that there are many people, customers and investors, suspecting of a scam, they are afraid that many will find out this thread and will find evidence that their exchange was a scam.

But this doesn't mean that the hack was indeed an inside job. They could be already in trouble because of their scam and then the hack ruined everything completely. The authorities will have to check everything. But the Rock was a scam for many years and now they will find out all about it.

The italian authorities only need to confront the publicly stated volume announced by the Rock and the recorded history of their real customers. The difference will me so huge that the scam will be more than clear.

The Rock Trading ended here. Every asset was frozen and even the houses of the two main owners were searched. They will answer for everything.

[Lillominato89]

today the shareholders' meeting of the rock trading was held, it came out that they have a fairly large loss of money estimated at between 15 and 20 million euros but in reality the actual amount of the loss is not known. they say, but it will be verified, that they have suffered a violation of their wallets where they kept user funds. in the meantime, a bankruptcy petition has been filed and will be discussed on 4 April next.

[HedgeFx]

First, I  apologize @Coinfan and @Jollygood if a few times my responses to this thread have been a bit dubious.
Unfortunately, despite being one of the oldest exchanges, TRT also proved to be unreliable.
I think Italian law is the first to blame in this sad affair becasue it was not able to protect the customers who had relied on TRT: in fact, it was enough to look at the latest financial statements to understand that something was wrong ( here is my analysis in the Italian discussion https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5440181.msg61974099#msg61974099 ) .
The seriousness lies in the fact is that Italian law has only ever been concerned about AML & KYC has never cared to check TRT's financial soundness.
For the Italian goverment in short you can be swindled by a bank or an exhange that guards your assets, the important thing is that you are not a tax evader or a criminal.
I am sorry because what happened will further contribute to increasing the FUD about cryptocurrencies in my country.

[JollyGood]

today the shareholders' meeting of the rock trading was held, it came out that they have a fairly large loss of money estimated at between 15 and 20 million euros but in reality the actual amount of the loss is not known. they say, but it will be verified, that they have suffered a violation of their wallets where they kept user funds. in the meantime, a bankruptcy petition has been filed and will be discussed on 4 April next.

Do you have a link? It would be good to read the information directly from the source to understand what was stated in full.

First, I  apologize @Coinfan and @Jollygood if a few times my responses to this thread have been a bit dubious.
Unfortunately, despite being one of the oldest exchanges, TRT also proved to be unreliable.
I think Italian law is the first to blame in this sad affair becasue it was not able to protect the customers who had relied on TRT: in fact, it was enough to look at the latest financial statements to understand that something was wrong ( here is my analysis in the Italian discussion https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5440181.msg61974099#msg61974099 ) .
The seriousness lies in the fact is that Italian law has only ever been concerned about AML & KYC has never cared to check TRT's financial soundness.
For the Italian goverment in short you can be swindled by a bank or an exhange that guards your assets, the important thing is that you are not a tax evader or a criminal.
I am sorry because what happened will further contribute to increasing the FUD about cryptocurrencies in my country.

I do not have any recollection of your input in this thread but if you did not accept the version of events put forward by the OP (being scammed) then it would be your right to believe the exchange over the individual but I am glad you have changed your view now Rock Trading have been shuitdown after what appears to be mass fraud.

The OP had €35,519 (at the time) seized unfairly by the Rock Trading and to this day they did not receive their money and will probably not see a penny of it. I feel sorry for the OP.

[Lillominato89]

today the shareholders' meeting of the rock trading was held, it came out that they have a fairly large loss of money estimated at between 15 and 20 million euros but in reality the actual amount of the loss is not known. they say, but it will be verified, that they have suffered a violation of their wallets where they kept user funds. in the meantime, a bankruptcy petition has been filed and will be discussed on 4 April next.

Do you have a link? It would be good to read the information directly from the source to understand what was stated in full.

unfortunately I don't have a link to the official meeting minutes, if it goes well I can send you the link of the legal protection telegram group where the lawyers of scammed users were present https://t.me/therocktradinghelp I got the information from there, since I am part of the group

22 Marzo 2023
Vicenda The Rock Trading

Riepilogo della giornata 33 .

- nessuno sviluppo sul fronte delle indagini.
- si e’ tenuta oggi l’assemblea della controllante Digital RockHolding.
Presiede l’assemblea la Dott.ssa Barsalini, presidente dimessa in prorogatio, assistita dal notaio De Costa.
Barbieri e Medri presenti per  delega in quanto soci DRH .
E’ presente il 78,2 % del capitale DRH .
Presente Dott. Pregnolato membro del CdA DRH ed i sindaci  Amadio, Lucchini e Borrola.
Medri e’ arrivato verso le 10:40 ed e’ intervenuto.
C’è un ammanco nella gestione di TRT : cause non precisate.
Medri lo quantifica in 15/20 milioni di Euro , fino a che lui ne avrebbe avuto il controllo.
A mia precisa domanda su quanti siano i clienti ed quanto ammontassero i fondi sulla piattaforma, la risposta è stata 12200 clienti, di cui 8000 con più di 10 euro.
Ammontare complessivo gestito: non sa dire. Come pure non sa dire se ammanco sia più ampio.
L’assemblea era convocata per il rinnovo del CdA di DRH : gli azionisti di riferimento non hanno però presentato liste, per cui il CdA continuerà in prorogatio.
Domani a Milano si terrà’ udienza per la nomina di un amministratore straordinario della società, il quale deciderà di fatto il destino di DRH e della controllata TRT.
Si e’ saputo altresì che e’ stata presentata istanza di fallimento per TRT che sarà discussa il 4 aprile.
Il nostro membro Borzi, anch’egli presente in assemblea , ha stigmatizzato il fatto che in nessuno dei bilanci, ne’ di DRH ne’ di TRT , sarebbero stati riportati i dati ne’ sul numero clienti ne’ sugli importi amministrati complessivamente dall’ exchange.
L’impressione generale ricavata da questa assemblea, e’ che ciascuno degli attori in campo fosse più impegnato a sgravare la propria posizione rispetto alla responsabilità degli altri.
Medri in particolare ha spiegato che lui si e’ sempre occupato di amministrazione, commerciale e di antiriclaggio, avendo delegato ad altri le attività più proprie di gestione tecnica delle valute.
L’unica conferma che si e’ avuta in assemblea, da parte dei sindaci , e’ la sussistenza di un accordo transattivo firmato da Medri, dove si sarebbe , a detta dei Sindaci, assunto la responsabilità per un ammanco nei confronti di tal BF , dell’importo di 3,2 mni di Euro, segnalato in data 26 gennaio a DRH, e da cui sarebbe derivato lo show down.
L’assemblea si e’ chiusa con la delibera di riconvocazione di assemblea per la nomina del CdA entro 30 giorni con voto favorevole del delegato di Medri e contrario Barbieri .
- Mentre continueremo a monitorare la situazione societaria, per il caso si aprissero spazi per un salvataggio, chi aveva ancora dubbi sulla necessità di avviare la propria tutela, da oggi può procedere: ogni illusione e’ caduta.
Resta da capire solo quanto sia grande l’ammanco.
Siti andrà avanti per la propria strada : raccolta documenti, denuncia, costituzione a processo, chiamata dei responsabili civili per il risarcimento.
Per far ciò, ha avviato la propria campagna di tutela collettiva , a favore dei clienti TRT e dei soci della controllante DRH : le istruzioni per aderire al seguente link https://t.me/therocktradinghelp/13302 .
Per il tutorial cliccare qui https://t.me/therocktradinghelp/13945 . Si invitano gli interessati ad aderire prima possibile, per evitare colli di bottiglia.
- la piattaforma e’ ancora aperta, solo per consultazione: ai fini della iniziativa di tutela , basta riepilogo posizioni in essere alla data di chiusura.
- il Poll circa la disponibilità dei clienti a concambiare propri crediti in partecipazioni di una ipotetica “nuova TRT” al link : https://t.me/therocktradinghelp/8653 ;
- il Poll sui possessi su https://t.me/therocktradinghelp/1044
- Le ultime notizie sulla sanatoria fiscale qui https://t.me/therocktradinghelp/14209
- Questo infine il link alla chat The Rock Trading Tutela Legale : https://t.me/therocktradinghelp .
Vi preghiamo di diffondere questo riepilogo sugli altri social.

Cordialmente
Dott. Domenico Bacci
Segretario Nazionale del Siti
www.sindacatositi.It

[JollyGood]

I do not have Telegram but thank you for adding a lot of information within your post.

If you are part of the group it is probably because you are a victim. If so, I am sorry about that as I am sorry for all victims. Are you at Liberty to say how much money you have (approximately) lost?

If the translation states there is a shortfall of €15-€20 million then that will be the end of the exchange as they will not recover losses. Also, any idea of clients swapping their losses for shares in a new version of the Rock Trading seems preposterous.

unfortunately I don't have a link to the official meeting minutes, if it goes well I can send you the link of the legal protection telegram group where the lawyers of scammed users were present https://t.me/therocktradinghelp I got the information from there, since I am part of the group

[Lillominato89]

I do not have Telegram but thank you for adding a lot of information within your post.

If you are part of the group it is probably because you are a victim. If so, I am sorry about that as I am sorry for all victims. Are you at Liberty to say how much money you have (approximately) lost?

If the translation states there is a shortfall of €15-€20 million then that will be the end of the exchange as they will not recover losses. Also, any idea of clients swapping their losses for shares in a new version of the Rock Trading seems preposterous.

unfortunately I don't have a link to the official meeting minutes, if it goes well I can send you the link of the legal protection telegram group where the lawyers of scammed users were present https://t.me/therocktradinghelp I got the information from there, since I am part of the group

I am a user of The rock trading but fortunately after the FTX affair I had removed all my funds from TRT, there weren't many honestly but I wanted to keep everything safe. it was declared by the assembly that there is a gap between 15-20 million but the exact amount is not known, on April 4 perhaps we will know better. it will surely be declared bankrupt! difficult to say if the victims will be able to get some reimbursement, if OP wants he could join the group because it is a collective initiative, obviously he must evaluate

[JollyGood]

I am glad to read you managed to the vast majority of your funds off their website after the debacle at FTX. If the demise of FTX taught us all one thing it is the same old saying: only send your crypto to exchanges when you want to exchange them otherwise keep them with you.

As for the OP, it seems they have logged in once and posted since the Rock Trading seized trading and have not been back since 8th March 2023. I hope they do join the class action because that way they could end up getting some or part of their money back.

I am a user of The rock trading but fortunately after the FTX affair I had removed all my funds from TRT, there weren't many honestly but I wanted to keep everything safe. it was declared by the assembly that there is a gap between 15-20 million but the exact amount is not known, on April 4 perhaps we will know better. it will surely be declared bankrupt! difficult to say if the victims will be able to get some reimbursement, if OP wants he could join the group because it is a collective initiative, obviously he must evaluate

[Lillominato89]

First, I  apologize @Coinfan and @Jollygood if a few times my responses to this thread have been a bit dubious.
Unfortunately, despite being one of the oldest exchanges, TRT also proved to be unreliable.
I think Italian law is the first to blame in this sad affair becasue it was not able to protect the customers who had relied on TRT: in fact, it was enough to look at the latest financial statements to understand that something was wrong ( here is my analysis in the Italian discussion https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5440181.msg61974099#msg61974099 ) .
The seriousness lies in the fact is that Italian law has only ever been concerned about AML & KYC has never cared to check TRT's financial soundness.
For the Italian goverment in short you can be swindled by a bank or an exhange that guards your assets, the important thing is that you are not a tax evader or a criminal.
I am sorry because what happened will further contribute to increasing the FUD about cryptocurrencies in my country.

in 2019 they had a hack of over 900 eth, subsequently declared and then budgeted and capped the loss with own funds (according to TRT)! that something was wrong could already be guessed but no one has ever investigated the accounts of TRT, think that the auditing firm which had the obligation to validate the financial statements after the appropriate checks did not even notice the loss of 15-20 million ! as you say, and I fully agree with the Italian laws often leave something to be desired! rightly so if you make a capital gain of over €2000 you have to declare it, please, but if you lose 15-20 million you turn a blind eye

[JollyGood]

Did that alleged 2019 ETH hack ever make the news? I have no recollection of reading about it in this thread.

As for Italian law stating capital gains of €2000 and more should be declared, that might be down to personal tax issues. For companies or corporations it will probably be using a different format. Having said that I do find strange all these years had passed and Rock Trading were not checked or audited independently. They probably filed annual accounts as with most companies around the world but exactly which figures were stated is an altogether different issue.

in 2019 they had a hack of over 900 eth, subsequently declared and then budgeted and capped the loss with own funds (according to TRT)! that something was wrong could already be guessed but no one has ever investigated the accounts of TRT, think that the auditing firm which had the obligation to validate the financial statements after the appropriate checks did not even notice the loss of 15-20 million ! as you say, and I fully agree with the Italian laws often leave something to be desired! rightly so if you make a capital gain of over €2000 you have to declare it, please, but if you lose 15-20 million you turn a blind eye

[Lillominato89]

Did that alleged 2019 ETH hack ever make the news? I have no recollection of reading about it in this thread.

As for Italian law stating capital gains of €2000 and more should be declared, that might be down to personal tax issues. For companies or corporations it will probably be using a different format. Having said that I do find strange all these years had passed and Rock Trading were not checked or audited independently. They probably filed annual accounts as with most companies around the world but exactly which figures were stated is an altogether different issue.

in 2019 they had a hack of over 900 eth, subsequently declared and then budgeted and capped the loss with own funds (according to TRT)! that something was wrong could already be guessed but no one has ever investigated the accounts of TRT, think that the auditing firm which had the obligation to validate the financial statements after the appropriate checks did not even notice the loss of 15-20 million ! as you say, and I fully agree with the Italian laws often leave something to be desired! rightly so if you make a capital gain of over €2000 you have to declare it, please, but if you lose 15-20 million you turn a blind eye

there is almost nothing around the web about the defeats of the rock trading, unfortunately it is one of the Italian mysteries, but I have to correct myself, it was not 900 eth but € 900,000 equivalent to 300 eth, the only article I found was not from that period but it is recent,
https://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2023/02/28/news/criptovalute_piattaforma_trt_soldi_bloccati_investitori_allarme_fascicolo_procura_firenze-389833306/ unfortunately it is paid and you cannot read everything in full

[dragonvslinux]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=15648

On of the accused in the OP is currently on DT2 for any DT1 members here paying attention:

     1. 15648: paci (Trust: !!!:  +1 / =0 / -2) (0 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)

The scammer flag still remains active, but they had a lucky break with DT1 lottery it seems.

(paci hasn't been active since 2021 so this isn't intended to alarm anyone)

[JollyGood]

Has this story began to make any serious headlines in the Italian media? After all, the mere mention of €15-20 million missing from a local company should be making some sort of noise in the media by now.

there is almost nothing around the web about the defeats of the rock trading, unfortunately it is one of the Italian mysteries, but I have to correct myself, it was not 900 eth but € 900,000 equivalent to 300 eth, the only article I found was not from that period but it is recent,
https://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2023/02/28/news/criptovalute_piattaforma_trt_soldi_bloccati_investitori_allarme_fascicolo_procura_firenze-389833306/ unfortunately it is paid and you cannot read everything in full

[Lillominato89]

Has this story began to make any serious headlines in the Italian media? After all, the mere mention of €15-20 million missing from a local company should be making some sort of noise in the media by now.

there is almost nothing around the web about the defeats of the rock trading, unfortunately it is one of the Italian mysteries, but I have to correct myself, it was not 900 eth but € 900,000 equivalent to 300 eth, the only article I found was not from that period but it is recent,
https://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2023/02/28/news/criptovalute_piattaforma_trt_soldi_bloccati_investitori_allarme_fascicolo_procura_firenze-389833306/ unfortunately it is paid and you cannot read everything in full

there have been a few newspapers that have disclosed the news, but mostly they have been sites and provincial newspapers, I must say that even some excellent newspapers have talked about it such as "ilsole24ore" or even "il Corriere della Sera". but despite this he hasn't made all this media noise

[giammangiato]

I read the transcripts that Lillominato published and there are some really scandalous things, people were selling crypto to cover the holes and pay the EURO cashouts.
Crazy, really embarrassing management.

[Serpens66]

I read the transcripts that Lillominato published and there are some really scandalous things, people were selling crypto to cover the holes and pay the EURO cashouts.
Crazy, really embarrassing management.

italian is a strange language. The initiator of telegram group "The Rock Trading Tutela Legale" shared some text from "Corriere della Sera, Mercoledì 12 Aprile 2023, Pagina 7" in telegram and the headline is:

Dal Corriere della Sera di oggi: mancano 73 MILIONI
Google translate says this means there are 73 millions left, but the word "mancano" translated alone means "is missing", so really no clue what from this is the real translation...
And it says 1500 BTC and 7000 ETH are missing. When you calculate this into EUR plus the ~20 million missing Euro, it is likely that the headline means "73 millions Euro are missing". Stupid google translate... I already had hope that roughly half of the funds are still there, so users would get back 50%, but I fear they will get back nearly nothing.

[JollyGood]

there have been a few newspapers that have disclosed the news, but mostly they have been sites and provincial newspapers, I must say that even some excellent newspapers have talked about it such as "ilsole24ore" or even "il Corriere della Sera". but despite this he hasn't made all this media noise

It is good this news went to those publications you mentioned but it is strange it not receive more attention.

This sort of news should have been much larger and on mainstream media because losing €15-20 million in any business is news. It could be that because many people still do not understand crypto that it did not make big headlines.

I read the transcripts that Lillominato published and there are some really scandalous things, people were selling crypto to cover the holes and pay the EURO cashouts.
Crazy, really embarrassing management.

After the investigations are completed there could be criminal charges. The money lost has been a disaster and setback for investors. I feel sorry for them.