The Swiss financial regulator, Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), is taking Envion AG to court. FINMA is after Envion for infighting and misappropriation of tokens which are marring the $100M project. The proceedings began yesterday.
What Does FINMA Have With Envion?
The Swiss watchdog said yesterday that it is initiating a proceeding against Envion on the suspicion of it violating banking laws by illegally accepting public funds. Recall that while the CEO, Matthias Woestmann, accuses the developers of manipulating its smart contracts, the team members claim the chief executive diverted tokens to private wallets of his friends.
History
Envion started in Berlin in 2017. Today, their headquarters are in Baar, a Swiss town in the heart of Zug’s Crypto Valley. The choice of Switzerland was to enjoy the Swiss favorable disposition toward cryptocurrencies and also its related products. Envion is a project established for the purpose of churning out environmentally-friendly virtual currency mining units. Its ICO raised $100 million.
FINMA Fights Against ICO Frauds
The Swiss financial regulator continues issuing stern warning sagainst fraudulent ICOs. They say that issuers playing hanky-panky with investors’ funds will be made to face the wrath of its laws. FINMA continues to maintain the position that it won’t hesitate
to deal with any ICO issuer found wanting. Furthermore, to send a strong signal to would-be ICO scammers, the agency shut down three companies for fraud-related cases. Additionally, they placed several others under investigations. According to the guidelines it issued in February to the cryptocurrency industry, FINMA identified ICOs as securities.
ICO Boom In Switzerland
According to a PwC report, Switzerland, considered as the financial epicenter of Europe, attracted $1.46 million through ICO in 2017. But between January and May 2018, a whopping sum of $456 million in ICOs ran through Switzerland.
Implication
With this lawsuit against Envion, they now have more trouble in their hands. The coming days will see the defendants appear before the court. Furthermore, they will need to explain what they have done with investors’ money and cryptos. Though, the worst hit in all this are the investors. They invested millions of dollars in a project rife with infighting, class action lawsuits, and endless accusations of fraud.
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