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- 1 The blockchain analyst CertiK made major allegations against the DeFi gaming project, FinSoul.
- 2 The former accused the latter of swindling investors by hiring actors to pose as top executives.
- 3 The probe revealed that FinSoul is a rebranded group and various other deceptive actions.
Companies committing fraud for investments is nothing new. The crypto domain has a fair share of such incidences. However, it is the methods deployed by the culprits that make particular cases more interesting than others. If blockchain security platform CertiK is right, then FinSoul’s recent fund-raising will be memorable.
Theatrics, Background, and a Trail of Transactions
On October 10, the gaming project FinSoul allegedly carried out an elaborate exit scam. According to CertiK, FinSoul’s development team staged some actors as executives to cheat investors. As per the allegations, they even succeeded in amassing $1.6 Million using this market manipulation trick. The usage of those funds makes this even more dubious in nature. The analyst reveals that the fraudsters routed this money to themselves using a bridged Tether.
The data shows that the funds were laundered through crypto mixer Tornado Cash. Notably, this is not the first fraud allegation against FinSoul’s development team. On May 23, a DeFi project made some big announcements through a press release. It claimed to have acquired the technology to create a metaverse platform. The PR stated that the company was using Cocos 2D and Unreal Engine 5 to develop a line of products.
It included MMORPG, sandbox worlds, leisure experiences, multiplayer sports, and other types of gaming content too. The same day, ZachXBT, an on-chain sleuth claimed that it was a scam. Their report revealed that the team siphoned off $31.6 Million and bridged it to the Tron blockchain. Now, CertiK claims that the team has rebranded itself on social media and everywhere. It says that “Fintoch” has turned itself into “Standard Cross Finance (SCF).”
The analyst even produced an image comparing the previous and current teams. Apparently, the photos look identical. It claims to have found the real names of persons branded as the C-suite. The analysts assert that these executives are actors who work in the entertainment industry.
Moreover, the CTO’s image was found on a promotional poster for a media company, said CertiK. The analyst wasn’t certain about the identities of the other two executives.
Reportedly, the rebranded “Standard Cross Finance” team went on to promote FinSoul on social media. The campaign also had a video brandishing a building as “R&D Headquarters.” It turned out that it was an office complex on East Hamilton Avenue in Campbell, California. A fake promotional event in Vietnam was also a part of the video. In addition, the data reveals that the project executed its token contract to the BNB Smart Chain Network.
About 100 Million FinSoul (FSL) tokens were minted and transferred to the deployer account on October 10. After that, the deployer sent 3 Million tokens to other accounts with a chain of transactions. The FSL team kept 97 Million for themselves.
One particular transfer contained 210,000 FSL tokens. This fund was used to create a liquidity pool for FSL on PancakeSwap. Since then, traders used this pool to buy and sell tokens.
Somehow, fraudsters find innovative ways to cheat naive people. In the crypto space, however, such instances take place more frequently. Hopefully, they will stop in the near future with some regulations.
Adarsh Singh is a true connoisseur of Defi and Blockchain technologies, who left his job at a “Big 4” multinational finance firm to pursue crypto and NFT trading full-time. He has a strong background in finance, with MBA from a prestigious B-school. He delves deep into these innovative fields, unraveling their intricacies. Uncovering hidden gems, be it coins, tokens or NFTs, is his expertise. NFTs drive deep interest for him, and his creative analysis of NFTs opens up engaging narratives. He strives to bring decentralized digital assets accessible to the masses.
