Former directors and investors of a cryptocurrency investment firm have alleged that Vehicle Mining System USA (VMS USA) is a Ponzi scheme, but the company’s CEO, Andy Park, has denied the allegations.
On April 24, Andy Park (Korean name Park Garam) held a press conference, claiming that VMS is operating legally. “Our company is a mining company that mines coins (by installing mining computers in vehicles), not a coin company,” Park said, adding that the company distributes the profits from mining to investors, denying allegations of a Ponzi scheme.
Park said that VMS has mined and deposited about $5 million worth of cryptocurrencies (40 Bitcoin, 199 Ethereum, etc.) since October 2021. “VMS has been mining $1 million worth of cryptocurrency every month and distributing mining profits to more than 4,000 (investor) members,” he said, adding, “Jason Han, the former director who raised the fraud allegations, invested $10,000 and received $9,450 in mining profits.”
Regarding VMS’s self-issued VMS Coin, Park said, “There are people who say that VMS Coin is a cryptocurrency that cannot be traded because it is locked, but the locked coin itself is a fraud.” “To be listed on an exchange, VMS Coin must follow international standards, and to do so, VMS Coin does not have a lock,” Park said. “However, for investors who owned VMS coins with locks in the past, we have resolved the issue by reissuing the coins,” he added.
Earlier, those who raised suspicions of a Ponzi scheme claimed that “Park promoted that VMS Coin, which started at 10 cents, would go up to $10, but the value has now plummeted to 0.0002 cents.” In response, Park said, “It is true that there is no trading volume. I didn’t pay much attention to it because I was preparing for the company’s listing on Nasdaq through a backdoor listing.” “I tracked the transaction flow to restore the value, and it is possible to restore the listing price with an investment of about $200,000,” he said. In response to allegations that there are more than 200 VMS Coin victims, Park claimed that “the number of members who invested in VMS Coin is less than 1% of the total 4,000 members.”
Regarding ‘BITBOKKI,’ which was promoted by VMS as an LA restaurant where cryptocurrency mining is possible, Park said, “The construction of the restaurant has been stopped for about two weeks, and the batteries needed for mining have not yet arrived.” “The restaurant is for sale, but the escrow has not been completed, so it cannot be sold anyway,” he said.
Meanwhile, the battle between Park and the ex-directors and investors who accused him of fraud will continue. “Other victims have been contacting me after reading the article,” said former director Jason Han, adding that other individual investors are also suing separately.
In response, Park said, “It is unclear what reports or accusations were filed by the victims.”
BY KYEONGJUN KIM, JUNHAN PARK [kim.kyeongjun1@koreadaily.com]
