The founders of the crypto fintech company Bankera reportedly used money raised during their 2018 initial coin offering to buy luxury real estate worldwide, according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
On Apr. 28, the OCCRP reported that nearly half of the €100 million ($114 million) raised in Bankera’s cryptocurrency fundraising campaign ended up in a bank in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Leaked company records and bank statements show that the project’s founders, Vytautas Karalevičius, Mantas Mockevičius, and Justas Dobiliauskas, bought the bank.
Soon after, the Vanuatu bank allegedly started handing out millions of euros in loans to companies owned by the three men. The money was used to build a luxury real estate empire, including a villa on the French Riviera and upscale properties in Lithuania, where the venture originally began.
Bankera ICO promised payouts, delivered losses
The leaked records and statements suggest that they used the money to back loans to other businesses, and those businesses then used the loans to buy luxury real estate. According to the OCCRP report, the Vanuatu bank also gave the three founders millions of dollars in personal loans for their own use.
The lawyers for the founders denied that the ICO was a scam but declined to discuss any specific transactions. Bankera aims to be the go-to bank for the blockchain era. The bank provides a suite of financial services for individuals and institutions while supporting and trading many of the largest cryptocurrencies.
The Bankera (BNK) token ICO attracted many investors by promising discounted prices on its services and products, plus the chance to earn weekly BNK payouts. However, an investor in Bankera’s ICO told the OCCRP that the weekly payouts started paying out significantly less than promised.
Bankera had also promised to secure a European Union banking license, though that hasn’t happened yet. Even after raising 100 million euros through its ICO, the current fully diluted value of the BNK token is just $975,710, according to CoinGecko data. Bankera continues to offer crypto-focused banking services and stays active on social media, mainly LinkedIn and X.
