Killer Whales, the new show created by HELLO Labs and CoinMarketCap, is described as “Web3’s answer to Shark Tank.” In the show, a team of several crypto professionals (described as “the Web3 industry’s most credible VCs, popular influencers and famous founders”) vote on a variety of different projects, giving them either a ‘SWIM’ or ‘SINK’ vote to decide which project will emerge victorious. 

CoinMarketCap, one of the show’s co-producers, is owned by Binance, a firm accused of wrongdoing by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

Not only that, but many Killer Whales judges also have controversial crypto-related histories. 

Mario Nawfal

Mario Nawfal hosts of a variety of Twitter Spaces (this is apparently still the name of the feature, despite the platform’s rebrand to X), often creating content around current crypto controversies. Nawfal has reportedly used inauthentic engagement to help grow those Spaces.

He has also apparently confessed to charging tens of thousands of dollars for the opportunity to pitch products on his Roundtable spaces. 

Nawfal also founded and led a startup incubator called International Blockchain Consulting.

This firm reportedly heavily marked up services for incubated companies, despite promising to do it at no cost. International Blockchain Consulting was also paid for services by other Nawfal companies, including NFT Tech, to promote his own Twitter Spaces.

Read more: FBI and SEC likely investigating Mario Nawfal after wave of complaints

Nawfal’s investment portfolio also appeared to be deep in the red when Upper Echelon made their video, raising concerns about his qualification as an investor for a show that is nominally about investment. 

Anthony Scaramucci

Anthony Scaramucci was infamously one of the shortest-lived Trump White House hires, serving just over a week as communications director in 2017. More relevant to his cryptocurrency bona fides is his deep relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried, a relationship in which he “opened up his Rolodex” to help Bankman-Fried get established.

FTX Ventures purchased one-third of his firm, SkyBridge Capital, a few months before the collapse. As part of this deal, SkyBridge Capital took a long position in FTX Token (FTT). Scaramucci also claimed he received a call from Joseph Bankman a few days before the bankruptcy. This call preceded Scaramucci flying to the Bahamas and his firm and an FTX firm entering into a series of agreements described in the FTX bankruptcy as “Letter Agreement — Release and Unwinding of Certain Relationships Dated 11/9/2022.”

Outside of these agreements, Scaramucci has claimed that his investment in bitcoin more than compensated for his losses on FTT and that the quarter following the bankruptcy was one of his company’s best ever. It has also closed withdrawals for its funds, citing “extreme digital asset market conditions following the FTX bankruptcy.”

Hopefully, he still has enough funds to be considered a ‘Killer Whale.’

CryptoWendyO

CryptoWendyO is a popular YouTuber covering cryptocurrency. She’s been accused of promoting a variety of different coins that ended up being scams, rug pulls, or otherwise illegitimate.

Read more: Leaked doc allegedly shows how much influencers charge to shill crypto on Twitter

NFT God

Alex Finn, who goes by the name ‘NFT God,’ is an NFT collector and newsletter writer. He had the unfortunate experience earlier this year of having his wallets drained and his account hijacked to send out phishing scams to his followers. 

Also, unfortunately for him, the Mutant Ape he was able to get back currently has a high offer of 4.8 WETH, a sharp decrease from the 15.47 ether needed to purchase the Ape back after it was hacked.

Ran Neuner

Ran Neuner is a crypto YouTuber and influencer who has also run investment firms and media companies in the digital asset space.

He sometimes tweets his recommendations about specific cryptocurrencies, even cheekily including the text “this is financial advice.”

His team appeared to at least occasionally follow these recommendations by selling their positions right away. 

Gracy Chen

Gracy Chen is a managing director of Bitget, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange.  

Chen recently wrote a piece for Cointelegraph in which she argued that “in instances where misconduct has occurred and users have suffered financial losses, clear mechanisms are needed to initiate asset recovery from the guilty parties.” 

In 2021, Bitget was suspended in Singapore for listing a token that pretended to be associated with the popular Korean band BTS. 

Altcoin Daily

Altcoin Daily is a YouTube channel that covers cryptocurrency. ZachXBT, an independent researcher, has shared a document that appears to show that Altcoin Daily charges $65,000 for promotion on its YouTube channel.

Zach did note further down in the thread that, as far as he knows, Altcoin Daily has always disclosed when it has been paid to promote cryptocurrencies. 

Kevin Sonei

Kevin Sonei is a comedian who frequently discusses cryptocurrency topics in his videos on Instagram. 

He has made a few bumbles on his investment journey, at one point leaving himself “dead inside” after losing so much of his wealth in SafeMoon.

Killer Whales, home to Web3’s most credible grifters

Binance-owned CoinMarketCap is one of the most important websites in the cryptocurrency industry, receiving a self-reported 340 million views every month. This means that this project is connected to the world’s most popular exchange and most commonly used aggregator and still decided to choose judges that include: 

• a Twitter Spaces host with no evidence of investment success accused of undisclosed shills,
• a failed White House aide who engaged in deeply suspicious transactions with FTX,
• a YouTuber who promotes coins that have a nasty habit of failing,
• an NFT expert who lost their main NFT in a hack,
• an influencer who offers ‘financial advice’ while his team sells the token,
• the managing director for an exchange that gets in trouble for how bad the assets it lists are,
• a comedian who almost lost everything on something called SafeMoon, and
• YouTubers who sell promos for tokens.

‘Killer Whales’ indeed.

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The post Meet the grifter cast of Killer Whales, ‘Web3’s answer to Shark Tank’ appeared first on Protos.

Alleged crypto fraudster Mario Nawfal has filed an $11 million lawsuit against a citizen journalist who has accused him of manipulating views on Twitter X and abusing the companies he ran for his own gain. 

YouTuber Upper Echoleon received the defamation suit on Wednesday and has already raised $21,000 to fight Nawfal.   

“The point here is to take a stand for what I believe in, against a person who is abusing the legal system in an attempt to silence criticism by targeting whistleblowers, sources, and reporters. I cannot tolerate that,” Upper Echelon wrote. 

Nawfal claims that Upper Echelon has defamed him through a series of videos that claim to feature whistleblowers from within Nawfal’s companies revealing evidence of his shady conduct.

• Nawfal is accused of paying for fake Twitter engagement.
• He supposedly used one of his incubators to charge others for services as opposed to investing in them as typical startup incubators should while dramatically marking up prices.
• He’s also alleged to have reneged on a lender guarantee and also refused to return lender principal. 

When Protos covered this story in June, a nameless party issued a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice against the piece which we have since refuted. 

Read more: FBI and SEC likely investigating Mario Nawfal after wave of complaints

Nawfal has also threatened legal action against X user ‘HashBastard’ and is suing former contractor Chet Long, who worked as IBC Group’s head of operational security, and former IBC chief marketing officer Frank Heidenrik.

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The post YouTuber facing Mario Nawfal lawsuit raises defense fund in a day appeared first on Protos.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appear to be investigating popular Twitter spaces host and entrepreneur Mario Nawfal, following complaints of embezzlement and other wrongdoings filed by those who worked for him.

Former US Air Force analyst Chet Long acted as an advisor for Nawfal. He alleges Nawfal embezzled funds from a company he once led as CEO, in a complaint filed with the US consulate in Calgary, the FBI, and the SEC back in December. He also alleges the 29-year-old entrepreneur “openly discussed tax evasion” with him.

Long says that Nawfal, who apparently owes him $27,000, is officially under the FBI’s radar. Agents called Long and told him to keep a cell phone as evidence.

Nawfal says he doesn’t owe Long anything. He claims he maintained an “amicable” relationship with Long despite the analyst’s claims that Nawfal caused his family emotional distress.

• Nawfal gained online attention as a prominent user of BitClout, a failed cryptocurrency social trading site.
• He refers to himself as a ‘serial entrepreneur’ and has launched several companies, including startup incubator International Blockchain Consulting Group — but many of these ventures have failed.
• Reporting by Protos exposed Nawfal’s shady cryptocurrency practices earlier this month, including a dodgy initial dex offering (IDO) that appears to have scammed family and friends.

Read more: Lawsuit embroiled Machi Big Brother has lost over $10M in NFTs

SEC receives Nawfal complaints from other former business associates

Nawfal also allegedly owes $60,000 to International Blockchain Consulting Group’s former chief marketing officer, Frank Heijdenrijk. He claims that Nawfal embezzled as well as inflated his Twitter audience with bots. Heijdenrijk says he reported Nawfal to the Dutch police, SEC, German stock exchange, and Germany’s financial regulator.

One of Nawfal’s former contractors, Sigmund Holtz, says the SEC approached him and asked questions about Nawfal’s business practices — indicating that investigations are very much ongoing.

However, Nawfal denies all of these complaints. In a text message to NBC, Nawfal said that he has an “impeccable record” and that investigators have never gotten in touch.

“I have never been contacted by any law enforcement agencies, as there is no legitimate grounds for investigation. Thus, any assertions indicating the involvement of law enforcement appear to be blatantly false,” he told reporters via WhatsApp.

The SEC and FBI have not commented, likely following a policy of not discussing ongoing cases. They may not feel obligated to inform Nawfal of any pending investigation.

Elon Musk endorsed Nawfal because of course he did

Elon Musk has occasionally interacted with Nawfal’s tweets, including retweeting his Twitter Space about the Wagner Group’s aborted revolt against Putin. He praised Nawfal’s ‘coverage’ of the event.

Musk has pledged to eliminate bots from Twitter, which makes his support of Nawfal odd. Evidence found by online sleuths suggests that Nawfal conspired with Winn Solutions to prop his account up with bots. Winn Solutions produced at least 570 bot accounts that can attend Nawfal’s Twitter Spaces, clap, send emojis, follow speakers, and retweet the Spaces.

Read more: FBI warns of fake jobs abroad that enslave victims for crypto scams

Heijdenrijk seemed to concur with these allegations and complaints, claiming many of Nawfal’s Twitter engagements are paid for — with an average of 469 “seeded accounts” (bots) per post. He says Nawfal started using the fake engagement in September 2022.

Nawfal looks on track to join the ranks of crypto stars who caught the ire of regulators. Whistleblowers have filed complaints with the FBI and SEC, accusing him of serious accusations.

It remains to be seen if Nawfal actually misappropriated funds from a company he used to lead — but based on reports by the whistleblowers, the FBI and SEC are actively investigating what appears to be a growing mountain of evidence.

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The post FBI and SEC likely investigating Mario Nawfal after wave of complaints appeared first on Protos.

Mario Nawfal’s Roundtable is an incredibly popular Twitter Space that features celebrities and Fortune 500 executives and attracts thousands of US listeners. 

Nawfal also recently launched a second Twitter Space called Crypto Town Hall that offers sponsorships and interviews — often for hire — and focuses on breaking news topics with broad appeal.

However, Nawfal’s success may not be what it seems. An uncanny number of dubious international Twitter users join his Spaces punctually — and, curiously, he averages a similar number of listeners daily. As a result, there are many allegations that Nawfal pays for fake Twitter engagement.

Indeed, online sleuth Upper Echelon claims to have uncovered a number of shady business dealings involving the 29-year-old. These include a public company that has lost four-fifths of its value and a loan scheme that once refused to return lenders’ principal despite Nawfal’s signed guarantee to pay. Upper Echelon also accused Nawfal of reneging on a guarantee to his lenders.

Nawfal’s entire Twitter Spaces operation seems purpose-built for crypto promotions. He once claimed to charge over $20,000 per crypto sponsorship on his Roundtable or Crypto Town Hall shows.

Allegations of unconscionable pricing markups

Nawfal repeatedly uses his Twitter Spaces to call on startups to join his incubator. International Blockchain Consulting (IBC) group is one of his supposed startup incubators. Disturbingly, Upper Echelon found evidence that Nawfal’s supposed incubator, rather than investing in companies as a typical startup incubator, charged many of them for services like marketing or social media management.

IBC often claimed to sell these services to incubated companies at cost, with no markup. However, IBC actually marked up the services it resold quite dramatically. Nawfal admitted on video to collecting $2 million from a crypto client called Faith Tribe despite only paying $8,000 and a few weeks of work to assist it as a client.

According to Upper Echelon, IBC often sourced promotional services like bot engagement, fake followers, SMM panels, forum spamming, and repetitive Twitter comments.

Nawfal’s IBC was also invoicing Nawfal’s public company, NFT Tech, for generously-priced services. During his investigation, Upper Echelon could not confirm that a number of the services invoiced for were rendered and noted that some NFT Tech employees pushed back against paying certain, questionable invoices. One line item displayed “Promoting the Roundtable” — the name of Nawfal’s Twitter Space — as a service.

Sometime between June 1, 2022 (the date on the last viewable IBC invoice) and June 7, 2022, when Nawfal’s NFT Tech announced the appointment of a new CEO, investors pushed Nawfal out of his position as CEO. They also forced him to forfeit ownership of 666,667 restricted share units.

Nawfal often threatens to sue when confronted with evidence about his shady business dealings. Upper Echelon clapped back, threatening to countersue and filing an ethics complaint with the California bar against Nawfal’s attorney. Nawfal reluctantly relented.

Mario Nawfal’s long history of failed businesses

Nawfal describes himself as a ‘serial entrepreneur.’ He co-founded NFT Tech, which went public on the NEO (Cboe Canada) exchange. On May 30, 2022, when Nawfal was still running the company, shares were trading at CAD$0.70 (around $0.50). Today, they are worth 85% less.

Before his involvement with NFT Tech and IBC, Nawfal had a significant presence on a social media platform called BitClout (CLOUT). BitClout misrepresented the likeness of celebrities as though they were BitClout users without their consent. Its founder, Nader Al-Naji, issued CLOUT on a bonding curve to guarantee insider enrichment. Even after a name change due to BitClout becoming such a despised brand, CLOUT (now DESO) is trading 95% below its all-time high.

Read more: A critic’s guide to BitClout, this cycle’s most hated Bitcoin project

BitClout is now called Decentralized Social. Nawfal’s promotion of his BitClout/DeSo tokens earned him significant holdings within BitClout, which he parlayed into an initial dex offering (IDO) called the DESO IDO fund.

Nawfal’s disastrous IDO fund

A document obtained by Upper Echelon indicates the IDO was probably a loan agreement with IBC through which IBC would pay out just 20% of its crypto profits. It would keep the remaining 80%. The loan agreement stipulated that IBC would pay no interest for the first three months after an investor sent funds. IBC would also pay no interest after the termination of the agreement.

Nawfal and a partner called Terek created a ‘Family and Friends’ investment pool. This pool leveraged the loan agreement to buy tokens in IDOs.

According to Upper Echelon, investors — or, more accurately, ‘lenders’ — sent approximately $750,000 in funds, which IBC used for its Family and Friends pool. However, many of the tokens that the Family and Friends pool invested in significantly declined in value. For instance, the fund bought $30,000 in DeliqFinance tokens which returned just $8,000. The rare tokens on which Family and Friends made a profit didn’t earn enough money to rescue the fund. In fact, it ended up losing $150,000. These losses would have made it difficult to pay back all investors.

Another ‘public-facing’ portion of the IDO fund allowed smaller investors to invest as little as $1,000. A related Telegram group had 57 members who likely invested in the fund. Only a few investors ever got their money back. Most of them ended up writing it off as a rug pull. Nawfal and Terek stopped participating in the Telegram group for long periods of time.

Upper Echelon’s investigation ended five months ago. Protos has not been able to verify the current state of the above-mentioned funds, including whether or not Nawfal subsequently repaid or provided satisfactory relief to participants.

Threatens critics with lawsuits

Mario Nawfal has a dubious business history that’s unknown to the vast majority of his Twitter Spaces listeners. Like many crypto influencers, he’s promoted shady investment schemes like BitClout and IDOs and even helped list a penny stock that, predictably, lost almost all of its value.

Upper Echelon has covered Nawfal’s possibly-shady business decisions. Nawfal tried to defend those decisions in a video and then had his attorney send a cease-and-desist letter. That letter threatened to pursue a DMCA request to YouTube to remove Upper Echelon’s videos criticizing Nawfal or IBC. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows copyright holders to request the removal of online content that violates copyright laws. However, critics say that bad actors have abused the DMCA to have YouTube channels’ free speech silenced.

Upper Echelon filed a complaint against Nawfal’s attorney for unethical conduct. Nawfal subsequently sent proof that he had fired his lawyer and was trying to get a refund.

As one might predict, Nawfal tried to downplay the whole thing in another Twitter Spaces event, claiming, “I’ve got no skeletons I’m worried about.”

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The post Twitter Spaces host Mario Nawfal’s dubious crypto dealings appeared first on Protos.