Channel: Point

Category: News & Politics

Tags: cryptocurrencybitcoin investmenteyelinerealtime bitcoinbitcoin scambitconnectdan putnamusi techwealthbosseyeline tradingbitcoin

Description: In our latest investigation, Point and Engadget spoke with multiple victims of a bitcoin scam called USI Tech. We decided to track down the people behind it. Watch how it all unfolds in our latest story. Please see an update about this story below. Don't forget to read the full Engadget story here. engadget.com/2019/05/23/bitcoin-ponzi-usi-tech-eyeling-trading-wealthboss Update 7/3/2019: Dan Putnam has responded to our request for comment. He said that WealthBoss is a separate corporation to R&D Global, and that the R&D Global name on the website is an error on the web designers' part that is being corrected. Eyeline Trading, Putnam said, was on the British Columbia Securities Commission's Investment Caution List solely due to it "not being possible to register a crypto-based company" with the exchange at that time. He added that he has "no idea who runs or owns usitech.io," the site that was redirected to Eyeline Trading's site. Putnam maintains that no people have lost money with WealthBoss or any R&D Global company. The rebrand to WealthBoss, Putnam said, came about because another company named Eyeline asked them to rebrand due to "100-percent false scam reports" that were affecting the unrelated company's business. Putnam said he has nothing to do with USI Tech. He knows "very little" about that company, although he did note that "some of their distributors are also [WealthBoss] distributors." WealthBoss' aim, Putnam said, "is to introduce people to crypto currencies, educate them and help promote our wallet, exchange and crypto in general ... we feel there are a lot of benefits and people should at least get educated." Engadget and Point would like to clarify that, although the business models and target market are similar, some of the key distributors are the same and a USI Tech domain forwarded to Eyeline Trading, we are not asserting that USI Tech is or was an R&D Global or Putnam company. There was one line in the original text story that conflated the two entities, and this has been corrected. We apologise for the error. We have reached out to Putnam for further clarification and comment on this story, and will continue to update this story as appropriate.