Prodeum Scam Investigation: More Schemes Up & Running?

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Sead Fadilpašić

Journalist

Sead Fadilpašić

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Sead specializes in writing factual and informative articles to help the public navigate the ever-changing world of crypto. He has extensive experience in the blockchain industry, where he has served...

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Last updated:

June 26, 2023 06:53 EDT

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Last week, the Prodeum ICO pulled an exit scam, disappearing into thin air and implying well-known and respected Lithuanian blockchain community members. Now, they claim that three more scams, operating on the same scheme, are public and running.

The blockchain community members, notably Business Hive Vilnius (BHV), a startup incubator and technology hub, decided to look into the case and try to find out who was behind the Prodeum ICO. None of the Lithuanians mentioned in the media have anything to do with this scam – their identities were stolen, presumably to ensure trust in the ICO, BHV stressed in a statement to Cryptonews.com.

The first project uncovered by investigators is Magnalis, a project very similar to Prodeum, describing itself as “decentralized medium for retailers, merchants, exchanges & individuals.” Their pre-ICO is supposed to last from January to March 2018, with a public ICO in April. Their official website is currently offline.

Two more projects were uncovered, International Federation for Produce Standards Token  and Lithuania FDA Asset, both presumably from the Prodeum team.

Both IFPST and Lithuanian FDA Asset did not respond to the requests for comment.

In regards of the Prodeum scam, total amount of stolen money does not exceed 43 ETH (c. USD 29,000), whereas 3 different wallets were used for the scam, the investigation showed.

The full investigation can be found here and it will be updated to reflect any new findings.