The ICO hype is gone. The rushing 2017 token party is over, the hangover prevails. The cleaning troops of the financial market supervisory authorities and investigating authorities are currently clearing away the garbage. According to estimates, ICOs have collected more than $30 billion from retail investors around the world. Most of this is illegal because most of the tokens issued would have to be qualified as security tokens and would have required a corresponding authorization.
ICO Platforms As New Investment Banks
Towards the end of the ICO hype, various ICO platforms were created to support ICO promotors with services and access to investors to place their respective tokens. The services offered are to be qualified as regulated financial activities which in most jurisdictions require a corresponding license from the competent financial market supervisory authority. Essentially, these ICO platforms act as crypto investment banks. In the area of corporate finance, the issuance of securities – stocks or bonds – is the most lucrative business for the investment banks involved.
Not surprisingly, most of these ICO platforms have been established in Eastern Europe and in offshore locations. Far away from established financial markets regulations. Moreover, these ICO platforms are closely connected with the illegal broker networks of the binary options legacy. The people behind these ICO platforms and the illegaly acting binary options and forex brokers are the very same.
These ICO platforms such as the Russian ICOadmin (www.icoadm.in) or the Ukraine-based COINadmin (www.coinadmin.com) were created in 2017 and offer the full range of investment services for the placement of tokens – from legal advice to bounty platforms and investor dashboards. Interestingly, both ICOadmin and COINadmin have the same projects in their reference list
- CrowdWiz
- Patron
- London Football Exchange
- Bountie
- etc
How come? Are two ICO platforms doing business here via two brands and websites? FinTelegram’s research has uncovered interesting facts in this regard.
Russian Hackers And The Gery Shalon
Allegedly, the beneficial owner of ICOadmin is said to be the notorious Russian hacker and spammer Vladislav SMIRNOV (formerly known as Vladislav KHOKHOLKOV). He is the close partner of Gery SHALON, who is accused in the USA of the biggest hack in the history of the US financial industry (see press release of the US Department of Justice). SHALON are indicted in the U.S. with 23 charges which in total are punished with more than 200 years in prison.
Among the charges is the hacking of 8 U.S. financial institutions and the theft of 100 million customer records. With these stolen customer data SHALON and his co-conspirators are said to have perpetrated pump-and-dump transactions with a number of penny stocks. Furthermore, SHALON is accused of having operated illegal payment platforms for criminal activities and of having been the beneficial owner of the illegal crypto exchange Coin.mx. Through these illegal payment platforms, SHALON and his co-conspirators are said to have laundered money on a large scale.
Among the charges is the hacking of 8 U.S. financial institutions and the theft of 100 million customer records. With these stolen customer data SHALON and its co-conspirators are said to have perpetrated pump-and-dump transactions with a number of penny stocks. Furthermore, SHALON is accused of having operated illegal payment platforms for criminal activities and of having been the beneficial owner of the illegal crypto exchange Coin.mx. Through these illegal payment platforms, SHALON and his co-conspirators are said to have laundered money on a large scale.
The fact is that the ICOadmin is operated by the Russian KRYPTON MOSCOW LLC based in Moscow. KRYPTON MOSCOW, in turn, has the Ukrainian KRYPTON CAPITAL as a partner on its website.
The GLADIUS NETWORK
Vladislav SMIRNOV has been a partner of Gery SHALON for many years They jointly own several illegally operating companies such as GV Holdings. Together they are involved in the dubious events surrounding the ICO of the US startup GLADIUS NETWORK. They claim to be investors of this company. The founders of GLADIUS NETWORK finally filed a lawsuit against these investors because they felt threatened by the more than strange events. FinTelegram has both the claim of GLADIUS and the statements of the parties concerned – with the exception of Gery SHALON and Vladislav SMIRNOV. According to this information, SHALON and SMIRNOV illegally kept tokens from the GLADIUS ICO.
Now it turns out that ICOadmin can be attributed to the beneficial owners Vladislav SMIRNOV and Gery SHALON. It is said that not only the ICO of GLADIUS NETWORK had dubious events. Also with other ICOs ICOadmin is said to have kept illegal tokens and not paid out money to their clients. Our research team is currently working on further details.
We have asked the CEO of ICOadmin, Sabir MAGDEEV (LinkedIn), several times for his opinion but have not received an answer yet.
We advise all issuers of tokens and investors to be careful with ICOadmin. Currently, there are simply too many red flags around the project and the acting persons.
