Once Famous Crypto ICOs in Israel Were Alleged “Scams”

The owner of Beitar Jerusalem has been made a party to a lawsuit by none other than his own assistant. In the suit, the assistant has alleged that three initial coin offerings (ICOs) were launched by Moshe Hogeg. The ICOs were accordingly issued by different businesses namely Leadcoin, Sirin Labs, and Stox, which were all owned by Moshe Hogeg.

The suit was filed before an Israeli Court on 25th May 2021 by some complainants who are now working with a capital venture fund in Israel. Employees claimed that the three ICOs namely Leadcoin, Sirin, and Stox, which were all issued in between the period 2017 to 2018, were alleged “scams”. It was also alleged in the lawsuit that the ICOs collectively obtained an investment of US$ 250 Million within and outside Israel. However, an allegation has been made by the plaintiffs that none of the received investment was utilized towards the development of the ICOs. Instead, the funds were illegally and fraudulently utilized by the operators of the ICOs for their personal use.

ICOs are commonly known as fundraising campaigns initiated by a business before the launch of the product. However, ICOs is particularly used in terms of the project relating to blockchain and crypto startups. A short promo of the upcoming product is shown to the potential investors which is followed by the publication of a “white paper”. The whole idea and concept of the future product are detailed in this white paper. If the promo along with the white paper is able to convince investors, then initial coins are being offered to the investors against funds.

In simple words, if an ICO becomes popular then its value grows in numbers. It is then integrated by crypto trading platforms for further investment and trade, sell and purchase purposes.

The plaintiffs namely Eran Okashi and Roee Brocial have raised a claim of US$ 16.1 Million against the ICO issuing firms. Both of the plaintiffs were once employees of the firm namely Singulariteam, which was a venture capital fund. Singulari team was the parent company whose subsidiaries were the ICOs issuing firms.

After filing the lawsuit, the local news media tried to seek comments from the defendants. For this purpose, Hogeg was also contacted but he refused to pass on any comments. Similarly, the Singulariteam’s officials also denied giving any opinion with regard to the case filing. However, Hogeg as well as the officials of Singulariteam denied of being involved in the crypto scam. Instead, they suggested that the present suit has been filed to harass and extort money from them.

Meanwhile, Okashi and Broncial informed the Court that when they joined the company, there were not aware of the scam. But due to pandemics, they are on official leave and within this time they realized that their employer is a scammer.