Today I will expose step-by-step a SCAM of a Spanish company, @BangerGamesGG, in which Halvings Capital invested $470,000 and which has scammed more than $10 million in total.
Banger Games came to us over two years ago, during the gamefi boom, and we decided to invest in it. We chose to invest because the guys seemed brilliant in the calls, @IBMData and @Microsoft had partnerships with them, and there were also well-known crypto players like @masterventures_ and @HorizenLabs. The tokenomics seemed poorly done and we were warned there would be changes to the vesting (which should be favorable for us).
Over these two years, Banger Games has sent weekly updates of more or less importance, and occasionally asked me for personal opinions on other VCs or service providers. Coupled with the fact that the market had become bearish, we decided to wait for them, not to pressure them for the token's launch, and give them space to grow the user base, build the platform, and make new partnerships.
Nothing happens for me until about 7/10 days before the listing when in a group where other crypto VCs are present, I read the message from HKS Ventures. Screenshots will follow:
At that point I contact Banger Games in our Telegram group and after being ghosted for 3 days Miguel proposes a call, when I insist it be as soon as possible I get ghosted for another 4 days. At that point I leave the group and tell them I don't like being ignored (after investing a substantial amount, not pressuring them, and always responding honestly to any of their questions) and that from now on we will speak through legal channels. Of course, I save and record all communications. Miguel (BangerGames team), my friend, is useless you delete conversations ;)
Talking with HKS Ventures I understand that we will no longer receive the token we initially bought ($BOMBCOIN) but this new token ($QWAN), and that the vesting that was initially supposed to be 25% at the listing turns into a year cliff (after 2 and a half years of waiting). All this without my VC, Halvings Capital, signing anything and without prior communication.
Their legal response from their side said that Banger Games communicated us about this change. I will attach a video record of my screen of email received from Banger Games during April and March so you can judge yourselves how impossible it was to understand this token change... Also no communication been made on Telegram, which was the main media of communication between us...
The only mention of Qwan is an email received at the beginning of May that introduces the ecosystem, but nothing else, I attach recordings of the mail so you can judge for yourself. It seemed more like a possible airdrop from a possible partner but nothing more, I had never heard of this Qwan before.
Alarm bells go off and I start investigating. From their own communications with the community, the founders say that the launch did not take place through Banger but through this Qwan company, to make the launch decentralized. It seems like a bad joke but it's not. What does this mean? Qwan is not Ethereum, you did not cancel the launch of your token to launch on an established platform known for its decentralization but on a new platform, which is simply a shell company for their operations.
From the screenshot below you can see that Qwan was registered on 2023-04-05. You can go and check it yourself on Whois https://t.co/cDbN9OIKP4
From this moment on, I start actively looking for a lawyer in the crypto field with experience and after receiving several positive feedback from other C-levels in the crypto field I turn to https://t.co/OLjQUGykP2. In the meantime I read the SAFT to see if there is anything written about the token change, the vesting change, and any kind of limits on the listing dates.
I attach part of our SAFT below. Basically it says that if BOMBCOIN didn't list by December 2021, the contract would be null and void. I have this written by our lawyer to Banger Games (all this even before they listed), and Banger Games' response is ridiculous: it basically says that I, Maurizio Esposito, have no right to request refunds when Halvings Capital Ltd should do it, the funny thing is that in the mail we even attached our Halvings Capital SAFT, where I, Maurizio Esposito, am the only creator and equity holder and the signer. And that the fact that I asked for a refund now didn't count since when, at the beginning of May, they asked me for a wallet to receive the tokens (at a time when neither Qwan's nature was known, nor were there changes to the vesting, etc.) this for them meant that I had somehow accepted their conditions (conditions never communicated to me). The SAFT falls under Spanish jurisdiction.
From this moment on, I start with the lawyer to look for other VCs, and potential Angels affected for a collective lawsuit. We are in process and if you are an angel or a VC affected you can contact me here, or on Telegram (@mauryis) or via email ([email protected]) or I also leave you the email of our legal, [email protected], to participate with us in the demand for fraud. We will go all the way.
By doing an on-chain analysis thanks to @ArkhamIntel of the wallets where we sent the funds, it is noticeable that they received almost $10 million and most of these funds went directly to Binance. We are collecting, and raking all their wallets, so if you can help in giving maximum exposure to this post, you would be helping because if we reach accounts with a large following we can give this story the due exposure, and these scammers the due punishment.
Another on-chain analysis shows how they started buying, and trading NFTs, for a value of over 500K, here are some of their wallets
https://t.co/VS5kbelL9q https://t.co/s37y0Zg3Z4 https://t.co/jVIArUZS8P
The wallet to which we send the funds, 0x2Cb47736e07E3A155433c0eEE812C789563C4e14, doing a search on Arkham shows 9.4M deposits on Binance.
The scam continues, not only do they launch the token on Tier2 exchanges, but they don't put any liquidity on DEX. This means that they probably launched the token with 100K or less of liquidity. At the launch the token (seed price 0.04/ PrivateA 0.05 / Private B 0.11 IDO 0.15$) goes from 0.15 to 0.018$ in a matter of hours. The other joke is that they blame the community for the lack of demand.
This is yet another nonsense from amateur scammers. All you had to do was give money to the market makers to protect price thresholds (like the private rounds) and the mm would have done it. Also having added a year of cliff for all rounds for all private investors, it is not even clear who dumped if not the team. Team that blamed the CEX for the dump which means that even the listing was paid for (partially probably) in QWAN tokens.
I don't want to ramble on forever, but the same founders, while ghosting me and other VCs were present in Spanish TG groups trading meme and shitcoins. When they weren't doing this, they were at parties in Dubai, where the same geniuses shared the stories on their own Instagram.
To be clear, when a VC invests in a project, it is to ensure that this project uses money in the development of the project to attract partnerships, acquire users, do branding, establish itself in the market and add liquidity.
I have asked the Banger team several times for an audit on how the money was spent, with plenty of evidence, and I have been deliberately ignored. There are ex-workers of Banger Games who say they have not received salaries, liquidity has not been added on any DEX, only on CEX and in very low quantities.
Another funny thing is that in the AMA they tried to justify the addition of the cliff to the tokenomics with the fact that the team now also had a longer vesting. They don't understand that no one cares about the vesting of a shitcoin with 20K/30K of liquidity on T2-3 CEXs, we care about how the 10 Million were spent.
But we can get an idea from the parties posted on the founders' Instagram. Fortunately the company falls under Spanish jurisdiction and we will make our voices heard in all competent forums. In the end, scammers will pay with money, freedom, or karma. Or all three.
If you want to participate in the class action and you are an angel or a VC, contact me on Telegram (@mauryis) by sending me your SAFT and I will add you to the group. Updates next week after speaking with lawyers working in Spain.
It’s BS. Half of bars in Barcelona are Chinese owned. There are lot of neighborhoods completely Chinese. If I see a trend is they buying, not selling. And anyway in Spain Chinese people get 5 years with reduced taxation’s so usually they change the company to some of their relatives/cousins/etc or they leave. Cause it’s not tax reduction is almost basically tax free
🚀New micro-cap AI banger: $FRIDAY
Imagine an AI-powered token launcher that reacts to real-world events in real-time. No devs, no delays—just pure automation. That’s @friday_dot_run.
Now imagine that AI using its profits to buy back and burn $FRIDAY. 🔥
@TizianoTridico@hodlemperor Btc se non avesse avuto la possibilità di scambiare con usdt sarebbe un giochino per nerds. E poi è una lamentela come se btc stesse cambiando, non è così. È semplicemente un applicazione creata on top di una L2 di btc
ELON IS AUTISTIC. HE'S ISN'T A N@Z1
😡 I'm angry right now. I have a brother who is autistic and I know a thing or two about this.
Most autistic people have difficulty expressing feelings. Elon does not express feelings very often. When he put his hand over his heart and then put his hand out towards the crowd, he was attempting to share love.
That's actually difficult for many autistic people. He felt strongly about something and was trying to express that.
For many people to suggest that he was making a n@z1 salute is completely beyond acceptable and shows their ignorance or that they are being intentionally deceptive.
Elon was expressing love, stop trying to make it into anything else!
@mbagamdre Imagina juzgar lo que eligen los demás sin tener idea de lo que pasa en su vidas privadas basándose en una entrevista donde solo la chica expone su punto de vista (llorando) y llamar a un chico más que retrasado sintiéndose inteligente.