After the Crypto Gouv scam, gone with the money of its investors, it is currently Ballzy who is talking about him in the French crypto community. Ballzy, whose real name is Kevin Julien Duarte, had already been convicted of fraud, money laundering and embezzlement in 2014. This obviously did not deter him from getting involved again in more than dubious cases…
Who is Ballzy?
Ballzy, like his Crypto Gov counterpart, claims to be a pro trader. He had already done a year in prison for having offloaded a hundred savers of 650,000 euros in the past. At the beginning of 2019, he tried his luck on the forum bitcointalk, without much success. Subsequently, without a trading license, he launched Wetrade, an investment fund which also oversees various crypto projects. In 2021, his fund invested 500,000 euros in a start-up “Votelab SAS” led by Nicolas Brait and Christophe Camborde. (Company whose site displays all the legal notices in force as well as the team in complete transparency). This start-up has issued tokens named powers. Ballzy mostly officiated on Telegram and Discord, unceremoniously banishing people who raised doubts or asked too many questions.
Ballzy: victim or accomplice of extortion?
Ballzy presents himself as a pro crypto trader since 2016 and founder of Wehodl.io, site registered in 2020. But above all market maker at FTX… If it was on FTX that he traded the assets of his clients, we can imagine the drama… It is November 22, 2022, 11 days after the bankruptcy of FTX , and its subsequent hack, that Ballzy makes a very strange call to one of the co-founders of Votelab. As aggrieved investors begin to demand accountability, Ballzy claims he was kidnapped and sequestered, which turns out to be untrue. A fantastic story told in a video Youtube.
Threats and a complaint
A few days later, it was the turn of one of Votelab’s partners to be threatened in a bar, while Ballzy was also present, prostrate in his seat. The attackers want to recover funds that Ballzy allegedly stole. A complaint is filed and forwarded to the BRB (Brigade for the repression of banditry), the case is taken very seriously by the investigators.
A dozen crypto scam projects
Ballzy is said to have launched a dozen crypto projects, swallowing up the investments of several thousand people. Most social channels have been disabled.
- impulsea token created by FDR (French Digital Reserve). Decentralized platform created, according to this linked article, by Kevin-Julien Duarte. ” Kevin-Julien Duarte, CEO of French Digital Management and Co-founder of Golden Roads Capital stated, “I am pleased to announce the upcoming creation of French Digital Management with the French Digital Reserve team. Nevertheless the origin of this creation seems controversial: it is difficult to verify it, the site giving no information on this subject (as is customary with an organization chart. Not to mention that the legal notices are compulsory, in France at least ). The only contact, apart from the form, is an email: [email protected] A certain Gael fagason Twitter, would also be the creator*.
- we tradewho uses a Discord channel and and whose twitter account has been deactivated. $800-850,000 was reportedly gobbled up by FTX.
- Nostaa token whose site, nostatoken.com is under maintenance. On the Telegram account, we can read Ballzy’s fake adventures (kidnapping, etc.).
- Wehodl.ioanother of his disabled sites.
- Ballzytrading whose website, ballzycrypto.com does not contain any legal notice. Ballzytrading offered a copytrading service.
- Immobycrypto.comwhose URL, created in 2020, automatically links to one of its Twitter accounts, “₿allzy #NFT $Solana early investor”. It was a real estate tokenization project.
- A quick word on Golden Roads capital whose site, now inactive, is still on web archives : we cannot fail to note Ballzy’s humour, voluntary or not: “Co-founder & Risk-Manager. (…)Mr Duarte (…) founded his trading firm in 2011 before successfully selling it in 2014. Mr Duarte has a decades worth of experience, founding, managing and financing alternative investment funds. This company, founded in 2017, was dissolved April 9, 2019 (but the site was still online in early 2022).
The precipitous fall of Ballzy
It is possible that the fall of FTX precipitated that of the Ballzy montages, however given his judicial past, it is hard to believe his procrastination on telegram. Ballzy, whose Youtube channel is still online at the moment, has the typical techniques of scammers: denouncing others, using technical terms, bragging (but not too much)… His personal website has no legal notice, not very professional. Its sometimes basic and familiar, sometimes vulgar, sometimes technical vocabulary is obviously aimed at a young and inexperienced audience: belonging to a community and feeling of confidence. The trap is closed. Yet savvy cryptonauts had described Ballzy’s plans as ponzibut, as always, they were shouted down. impulse especially : Crypto Duck 14 has also pinned an explicit illustration on this token on its Twitter account.
*There is indeed a company registered on December 24, 2019 in the name of FDR French Digital Rising, with a share capital of 60 euros, but it must not be the same as the exchange since this company has a NAF code corresponding to “internet portals”. No doubt these are resemblances without concordance. We are always looking for information to update information about FDR. (Let our readers hesitate if they have any, but it would certainly be wiser to let the investigators do their job).
A complaint has been filed and the investigation is underway on this case which seems to be a vast scam. A form has been put in place to link the various victims on Warning-Trading. A Telegram site and group are also available. We regret once again that hypnotized investors do not listen to whistleblowers. It should be noted, however, that financial scams are not specific to cryptocurrencies, but affect finance in general. When will there be specific training in French schools?
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