- Ravindra Kumar has been fired from his own company.
- Self Chain has found itself at the centre of an alleged $50 million scam.
- Kumar has denied any wrongdoing.
Self Chain is distancing itself from its founder and CEO Ravindra Kumar after he denied involvement in a $50 million crypto fraud targeting crypto’s wealthiest investors.
On Monday, the Binance-listed project announced in a post on X that it had formally terminated Kumar.
Self Chain attributed the move to “recent developments that diverge from the founding vision of Self Chain.”
“He will no longer hold any position, responsibility, or association with Self Chain in any capacity going forward,” the post said.
Fraudulent deals
On Thursday, Mohammed Waseem, CEO of Aza Ventures, an Indian over-the-counter deals broker, revealed that his firm unwittingly helped mediate dozens of fraudulent deals over the course of several months.
Over-the-counter, or OTC, refers to trading of assets done directly between two parties, and without the supervision of an exchange.
Waseem didn’t name who was behind the fraudulent deals because he said he believed it gave himself and other investors the best chance of recouping their investments.
But suspicions mounted online that Kumar was behind the fraud. Kumar denied the allegations in a post on Friday.
Kumar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police complaint
The scam has hit the crypto industry’s wealthiest cohort of investors who often look to invest OTC in the vested tokens of early-stage projects because of the potential for outsized returns.
One source close to the matter told DL News the largest individual investor had invested between $5 million and $10 million in the phoney deals.
On Sunday, Waseem said on Telegram he had filed a police complaint with the local authorities in India which he said had also been sent to Kumar.
DL News could not independently verify the police complaint.
Since Thursday, the situation has driven Self Chain’s SLF token down over 27% to its lowest price since its August launch.
How it worked
The scam allegedly involved an unnamed individual working with Aza Ventures to sell vested crypto tokens for multi-billion dollar projects such as Sui, Near, Axelar, and Sei at steep discounts and under favourable conditions.
Vested tokens are often given to early crypto venture investors. The tokens are locked — or vested — for several years before they can be sold on the open market.
However, it’s common for investors to offload vested tokens in private deals before they finish vesting.
Kumar has denied accusations that he sold vested tokens that never existed. When the time came for him to transfer tokens to buyers, he allegedly kept delaying, leading several buyers to raise the alarm.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi correspondent. Reach out to him with tips attim@dlnews.com.