Crypto founder behind $100M ICO Sale is Missing – Here’s What Happened

Crypto Founders sold Unregistered Securities

The founders of Status Network Jarrad Hope and Carl Bennetts have reportedly are inaccessible and out of reach. The software development company that builds Web3 apps, including a decentralized chat app and web browser, has raised $100 million in an ICO back in 2017. 

According to a lawsuit filed by the counsels from the firms, Selendy & Gay PLLC and Roche Cyrulnik Freedman LLP, the founders sold unregistered securities and raised $100 million ICO in 2017.  However, the counsels had filed the original complaint against the founders in the month of April. At present, they have approached the New York Court with a letter fearing that the founders might go missing.

With the letter, the counsels have requested the judge to consider this case at the earliest as both the founders are not traceable. However, the company’s official address is registered in Zug, Switzerland, but the physical presence of the office is completely in disbelief.

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Investors Counsel on a run to find them

Both the founders were responsible for promoting ICO with unregistered securities. Hope, the CEO was responsible for putting the sale together, and Bennetts, the CTO was responsible for promoting the sale. Hence, the investor’s counsel was in search of both from some time. 

As per the counsel, they have spent resources scanning the social media sites, blog posts, corporate records and government registries to find them. Moreover, they also hired a private investigator to track them down.

The investors even doubt the physical existence of the company at its registered address. The counsel says, “Whether Status’s address for service of process in Zug, Switzerland hosts any physical office space or employees, or whether it is simply a corporate mailing address,”

Hope Still Active on Social Media Platforms

While counsel of the investors write a letter to the court to look into the case as the founders are missing, one of the founder Jarrad Hope is still active on the social media platform Twitter. He was found retweeting in the last couple of hours.

Hope is quite a lot active on Twitter but the tweets of Bennet’s account are protected. The last tweet retweeted by hope was on 6 August 2020 around 4:30 pm.

In a nutshell, the founders of Status Network at present might not be traced or not within reach presently, but it is hard to state them as ‘missing’. In another case, big crypto giants like Binance, Block.one, Bitmex and some others are also expected to face a lawsuit by the same New York law firm-Roche Chrulink Freedman. A total of 42 investors from more than 10 countries through the law firm, alleged that all the exchanges also mislead investors into buying unregistered securities.