To give you an idea of what I’m going to talk about, I’ll start with a question: Do Dorna, Razali, Aprilia, Rivola, Piaggio and Colaninno (who, as far as I know, doesn’t like cryptocurrencies) know, in short, that the new Dorna sponsor and owner of the Aprilia customer team has a past in what appears to be a worldwide mega-scam based on gold and cryptocurrencies?
CRYPTODATA HAS MADE THE VIDEO REMOVED ON THE COURT OF “COPYRIGHT REASONS”
However, you can still find it here:
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Let’s get straight to the point. The events of Razali and his team, which is now with Aprilia and is no longer his, you all know.
First Petronas who lasted 2 years and then ran away.
Then WithU Energy which had asked for a 5 million loan to sponsor MotoGP and other sports: WithU also failed.
You can find all the Misterhelmet articles anticipating this, I’ll put the links to the videos, don’t worry. Click here!
And now a very interesting sponsor has entered MotoGP. It’s CryptoDATA, a Romanian company that sponsored the Austrian GP on which it has a 2 year contract, and then even joined the RNF team.
Here are some articles. There are almost as many as were written in the TANAL case.
CryptoDATA acquista la maggioranza del team RNF: Razali resta al timone – Moto – Motorsport
CryptoDATA Tech becomes RNF MotoGP Team majority and strategic shareholder
CryptoDATA takes over majority stake in RNF MotoGP outfit – Motorsport Week
MotoGP: la doppia scommessa della cripto-Aprilia
CryptoDATA has not simply entered as a sponsor of Dorna nor as a mere sponsor of Razali but as a ‘majority shareholder’ WHO DECIDES EVERYTHING, I read in direct interviews on Romanian websites and elsewhere.
CryptoDATA’s bosses are Ovidiu Toma, who says he is a motor racing and rally champion, and his partner Bogdan Maruntis, who says he is a jet fighter pilot! I didn’t find these sports results, but I’m not very good at finding things on the internet.
Toma is also described as one of the most knowledgeable men in Romania on cryptocurrencies, which he says he doesn’t care about, although I hear the opposite, rich enough to be invited to billionaire’s parties and married to the daughter of one of Romania’s former richest men, Ioan Nicolae, who just got out of jail for the second time for money laundering, tax evasion and other things.
For CryptoDATA, there is even talk of 50 million in four years for much more than 50% of Razali’s team. Proportionally even more than the 80 million put in but then not put in by TANAL Aramco to sponsor Valentino Rossi’s team. Then we saw how that turned out. Here, however, the money is there.
Toma tells Mediaflux, which is a very CryptoDATA-sponsored magazine like almost all the Romanian ones that talk about him.
“In fact, the investment made is equivalent to an exposure, so not a price. We cannot disclose the price, but the exposure is about 50,000,000 euro for four years, that is about the exposure we have. We cannot disclose the amount of the contract, but it is quite high and it is a very big effort that we made just to expose our products, services and know-how to the whole world. Of course, the transaction was not done in cryptocurrency. We do not produce cryptocurrency, we produce cryptography, so secure communication equipment using blockchain technology and more. CryptoDATA is not a financial business, it is a technical business. And then, of course, it was not a cryptocurrency transaction,” the company director explained to Mediaflux.ro.
He can’t reveal the figure but says it’s 50 million for 4 years but I don’t understand if it’s the sponsorship or the 50 million is the purchase of the majority of the team. He says it is not a financial business but a technical one, but he is buying a team to do marketing. So it’s a communication business.
He says it’s very far away from cryptocurrencies but it provides services to people who do cryptocurrencies and also, Ovidiu Toma has a good background in cryptocurrencies. Of course he does and he continues to have an involvement in something called Xiden, which is nothing but a blockchain ecosystem.
For me, being a data and metrics analyst in marketing, CryptoDATA is something very interesting for my work.
So I went to see what it does and wondered if it makes sense for such a company to not only sponsor MotoGP but even buy a team. How much is Razali’s team worth if you don’t get 50 million to buy it all?
Says CryptoDATA of itself:
Acquisition of start-ups, OK, research and development, OK, blockchain, encrypted data. All pretty generic. And of course none of us want to play the part of the one who doesn’t understand innovation, so we make it work. I pretend I also understand what services this company sells.
As many as 150 employees, operations in 24 countries and 14 locations worldwide. A multinational company.
As addresses I only found the one in Romania but it doesn’t matter because I’m not very good with the internet.
200 million dollars is the value the company claims to have.
But strangely there is no turnover, no EBITDA, no other financial data. Yet it is a multinational company.
I wonder:
1) Who certified this 200 million value?
2) How does a company worth 200 million as a whole sponsor for 50 even spreading this figure over several years?
Which of these two figures 50 and 200 is not plausible?
Apart from the laws that allow you to do so, if you spend 50 million on a sponsorship, how much do you make? A billion?
CryptoDATA says it has taken a European funding of 5 million. OK.
Reminds me of another Razali sponsor. CryptoDATA does not make fuels, lubricants, which are related to racing or mass products like soft drinks, insurance or energy.
So I don’t understand. Is there a board of directors that has approved the purchase of a MotoGP team? They say yes. OK.
For me, the money is there. It’s OK, I just don’t understand the motivation on the marketing level.
For work, I immediately found CryptoDATA’s projects interesting, but looking at the site where the words crypto blockchain security appear a thousand times as buzz words, I find many similarities with things that did not go well. There is a lot of sponsored content on the web, a thousand unexplained partnerships (surely I am wrong), an electric car that has not yet been produced (the car never fails) and surely I am wrong. Ah, here’s the car. I know you want to see it.
There are a lot of newspaper articles from a few years ago about fantastic projects that still haven’t got off the ground, such as the low-cost Tinker mobile phone, which was presented three years ago and never produced.
But now Tinker is no longer a mobile phone but has become something else. Whatever.
And then the core business not really explained. Technological keywords but which ones? So many technological terms like those that are fashionable now that if you are not part of them, you are a dinosaur.
Do you remember TANAL Aramco? There was the mystery of giant construction projects in the East and if you didn’t understand them, you were an asshole. Here they are replaced by blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
It is always very difficult to play the part of someone who doesn’t understand.
In this case you look bad if you claim not to understand exactly where the blockchain and cryptocurrency money is coming from.
Not to be boomers, we all accept these companies’ business models of the future, even when we don’t fully understand them.
Eh, but CryptoDATA doesn’t deal with cryptocurrencies, it deals with data encryption, they say. Yet, there is no service for sale in this regard. It is the first case in the world of a software and technology that nobody talks about. Nobody is talking about CryptoDATA except themselves. Cisco, Kaspersky, Bitlocker, Vircom. Find reviews and their products for sale as well as the companies that use them. About cryptoDATA I found almost nothing. But I’m not very good at the internet. I apologise.
Oh right, the free encrypted messaging app Wispr. Which has 50,000 downloads, though, and that’s a bit low to make millions as those in the top ten have several million downloads.
My Biketweet application had 12,000 and it was not convenient for me to keep it open.
The Mediaflux magazine, which by now we know is sponsored by CryptoDATA, says that Wispr is the Romanian alternative to WhatsApp and Telegram and that it has 1 million users against WhatsApp’s 2 million. But this is bullshit because I understand that it has 50 thousand on Android and that WhatsApp has 5 billion.
Stop everyone: the CryptoDATA site sells one thing.It sells cellphones and computers, all in gold and black (remember these colors).
I wanted to buy these but gave up because they are the ones I used five years ago, with an operating system that is nowhere to be found and super software that, apart from the company itself, nobody talks about.
So I did what everyone does: I looked for product reviews. Of all the hi-tech products in the world there are reviews on YouTube, but not of the mobile phones and computers sold by CryptoDATA.
There are only the presentation videos of the company that talks about itself and has filled youtube with videos where comments are often disabled.
In truth, of the IMPULSE phone, there are only two reviews of the old one, one of which is sponsored, while of the notebook there is some unboxing but no one explains anything.
Basically, the phone is an old Android made in China in which you can insert keys to perhaps encrypt the data. An Android in which you can only load apps that CryptoDATA decides. Thanks to the whistle that’s for sure. You are isolated.
But we learn that Facebook is deemed safe instead (otherwise who would buy the phone)?
The phone is a disaster and does not do what it promises. I’ll put the link to the review so you can judge for yourself.
If you want you can go and see what the reviews say on Purism.
https://forums.puri.sm/t/basm-laptops-opinion/13242/22
Reddit also speaks very badly of it, defining it very negatively.
There is also a new model but no real review. Android authority says there are two companies that produce blockchain phones but that you don’t need a blockchain phone to handle cryptocurrencies. CryptoDATA is not even mentioned as a company. Blame Android Authority?
The same argument we make about mobile phones could be made about other products, notebooks and mini PCs, on sale at a high price on the CryptoDATA site but discounted elsewhere, if someone had bought and reviewed one for real and not on commission without explaining anything.
If you want to see what people think of CryptoDATA you can go to TrustPilot where you can find cryptodata.com and cryptodata.ro
BUT DORNA DIDN’T VISIT TRUSTPILOT?
And now the most interesting thing about CryptoDATA products. The box.
The phone, and also all the products sold by CryptoDATA, on the box revealed, now things are changing, a secret that intrigued me a lot and it’s called Karatbars.
You can see it at se 00.56 of the video.
These mobile phones and computers that are now for sale were nothing more than part of a kit that an investor received after joining Karatbars!
What is the German company Karatbars? Invest Report also asks this question and says, in a summary.
Perhaps the biggest gold-based Ponzi scheme scam of all time? It says so because this company is no longer operational and has already received several warnings from various governments.
The Case of ‘Karatbars’ – the Biggest Gold Pyramid Scheme of All Times? (Part 1) – Invest Report
Founded in 2011 by the German, Harald Seiz, and co-founders Josip Heit, Alex Bodi (later jailed for organised crime) and Ovidiu Toma, the current boss of CryptoDATA, Karatbars claimed to offer gold bullion to customers. Only recently Karatbars moved into the cryptocurrency industry and closed down a couple of years ago.
Karatbars International created its own cryptocurrency called KaratGold Coin (KBC). The digital currency began trading in July 2018, the period Toma says it entered, and was listed on some local exchanges.
The promise was to enable virtual gold-based payments that would change the world. Unfortunately for those who believed it, it didn’t happen and the company poofed despite saying it had 400 tonnes of gold (more than the UK) in a vault from one of its mines in Madagascar.
There was no vault and there was no mine. All made up.
To give you an idea of Karatbars’ hole to investors:
If the currency issued by Karatbars was guaranteed, hence real, to repay all investors, the company would need to own $5.76 billion in gold.
OK but how does CryptoDATA fit in?
CryptoDATA, and Karatbars have in common one of the founders: Ovidiu Toma (although he claims he was only a contributor who joined in 2018).
In CryptoDATA he is the boss and in Karatbars he was the CTO, the head of technology. The one who managed all the technology part of when these people who were selling gold decided to switch to cryptocurrency. Remember. Ovidiu Toma is the biggest cryptocurrency expert in all of Romania, as the newspaper he sponsors, Mediaflux, write.
All the technology including mobile phones and PCs that were sold with the monopoly type kit of the small bullion investor. Here it is.
You bought a kit with a small bullion, and all the tools to invest in a cryptocurrency they produced convertible to gold etc etc. Never happened. Here is the karat bars phone, produced by CryptoDATA.
And here’s the PC being taken for a ride
And here’s the kit complete with goggles to go and show off, then see who wears them.
Then when you had enough crypto gold you’d go to an ATM karatbars, type in the codes and the bars would come down or you’d get them credited to an account via a virtual currency or even a Mastercard.
And someone even believed it! They even pulled someone in in Italy thanks to a certain Walter Boz. Here is the ATM dispenser of ingots.
And here is the Italian advertisement.
Obviously after Karatbars was blown up and one of the partners, Alex Bodi, went to jail for organised crime and human trafficking,
Ovidiu Toma says he had nothing to do with it and that he only sold mobile phones and only collaborated for a year. Yet he is presented as CTO, chief technology officer.
And I’m not the one with the gold bar in my hand .
And I’m not the one on the boat with Bodi and Heip, president of Karatbars International Board
Then there are a lot of videos if you want I’ll put the links in the piece. And they are all statements from Karatbars, the ones about partners.
Investors Stuck Hoping Karatbars Pay-up Owed Billions
Just to be precise.
Harald Seiz and Josip Heit of KaratBars Scam 1.4 tons of gold missing (mirror)
And it’s not me mining for Karatbars in Romania and recovering, posted later by Karatbars.
Cryptodata center Karatbars, Romania
It’s not me with the gold standard bank Bugatti, Karatbars financial at 15secs.
https://player.odycdn.com/api/v4/streams/free/cryptodata-gsb-karatbars-sponsors-miss/3d857c74c38a21dfacd2da88ce7a91dd5c781d04/5e0ce5
And it’s not even me with the ingot in my hand together with Alex Bodi the one arrested for extortion, trafficking in human beings, etc., a partner of Ovidiu Toma, as the Romanian press says.
Partenerul de afaceri al lui Alex Bodi e în deșert cu fiica unui miliardar român celebru
Although I have 10 times the information I have told you, I will not go into further details of banks, parallel companies, funds, subsidiaries, lawsuits, etc. so as not to bore you. But I must tell you that given the results Karatbars has been ordered to cease operations in Germany, Holland, South Africa, Canada, and other countries.
In others in South America they are very angry. So says The Guardian.
German firm told to wind up cryptocoin business after pyramid scheme claims | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian
Karatbars fraud warnings issued in Germany & South Africa
Karatbars International cease & desist in Germany finalized
I don’t want to draw any conclusions, but if you type Karatbars scam into google, you will find 33,000 results.
Keep in mind that these cryptocurrency affairs are very recent (2020, 2021, 2022).
There are no final judgments, but there are many government measures and many complaints. In short, many open proceedings.
The founders of Karatbars, despite failing to deliver what they promised, have made fortunes. Some of them opened new companies, others said they were never founders, but in fact 1.4 tonnes of gold are missing from what I read. Don’t strain yourselves. That’s almost 80 million euros. How will it be used?
First I asked myself: does it make sense for a company that sells blockchain phones that many people say don’t work and of which there is not even a review anywhere, to buy an entire team for publicity?
Now I ask myself: am I a fool if I wonder if there is a financial connection between Karatbars and CryptoDATA, given that the same person is involved in the technology part?
Another thing I wonder: does Dorna know that one of its sponsors and team owners has this kind of past?
Carmelo is very happy:
Does Razali know this? Do Aprilia, Rivola, and Piaggio know that their contact person, i.e. the new owner-decision maker of the customer team, has this kind of track record and that it is apparently not true that he does not deal in cryptocurrency?
Surely I am wrong and I am available for rebuttals and explanations. If someone explains to me that I should take it easy, that’s fine with me.
Meanwhile, they’re all OK with a big thumbs up.
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