Confido

Small time crooks. Who would take the time to do an ICO just to run off with a paltry $375K? Come on! A REAL crook would raise MILLIONS before heading off to.......somewhere. Looks like the bad guys got away, too. Oh, and the firm that hosted the ICO 'coined' (sorry) the theft an "exit scam" and said it is going to tell the FBI all about it. Note to others thinking of this; get a catchier name (Coinfido......really?) and get at least $20M. ICOs are hot, ya know.

(Bill Taylor/CEO)


A cryptocurrency start-up that raised nearly $375,000 through an initial coin offering has disappeared with the funds.

Confido billed itself as a company that is developing "smart contracts" to act as an escrow between a buyer and seller during a transaction of some sort.

Traditional escrows would be held by a third party. But smart contracts are supposed to be fulfilled when both sides meet certain conditions, removing the need for that third party.

The ICO took place earlier this month through a platform called TokenLot, which facilitates the fundraising. Nearly $375,000 was raised. Investors were given "contract for differences" tokens.

These tokens traded as much as $1.20 on Nov. 14, but plunged following the disappearance of the Confido team to around 2 cents, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

'Legal trouble'

In the past few days, in what is being dubbed an "exit scam," online assets related to the Confido founders and the company have been deleted. The firm's website, Twitter account and Facebook page were erased. However, a cached version of the company's Medium post that was put online on Sunday still remains. In the post, the Confido team said it is in a "tight spot" due to "legal trouble" with a contract. "We signed the contract with assurance from our legal advisor that there was minimal risk and it would not be an issue. I can't and won't go into details, but he was wrong. It is a problem," the post says. It was reportedly authored by Joost van Doorn, CEO of Confido, but there is no trace of him online. A description of van Doorn on the cached version of Confido's website says that he has a master's degree in international business and has worked at firms such as eBay, PepsiCo and Zalando..." Full Story at CNBC.com