It’s not the first time Werner Böhm has hit the headlines for controversial activity, you can see our initial coverage of this story from way back in November 2017, here.
To give you some background, Werner Böhm was formerly the CEO of the blockchain payment service, BitRush. BitRush traded publicly on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Through this, Böhm employed deceitful tactics to con shareholders which in turn encouraged a lawsuit to be taken out against him. According to Crypto Daily:
“At the board meeting (Dec 7, 2016), a majority of the directors appointed a Special Committee of the Board to investigate the circumstances leading to the cease trade order and related matters to report its findings to the Board. The Board also terminated Werner Boehm as Chief Executive Officer of the Company, effective immediately, as a result of actions taken by him without Board approval to the detriment of the Company, including issuing unauthorized and inaccurate press releases.”
Furthermore, according to an official BitRush statement:
“On December 7, 2016 a majority of the board terminated Werner Boehm as CEO as a result of his detrimental actions taken without board approval, including the posting of a number of inaccurate news releases on the Company’s website. The inaccurate news releases include false allegations that the former acting CTO was “blackmailing” the Company and a news release that Werner Boehm has called a special shareholders’ meeting to be held on February 14, 2017.”
Image sourced from: https://wien.orf.at/news/stories/2747846/
It is said that during this time, Böhm maintained a close relationship with two partners named Alfred. D and Elfriede. S both of whom have been seen to act quick against any allegations aimed at him.
Since then, Böhm is alleged to have been operating from a site in the United Kingdom which in turn was used to host and register a large number of companies, according to the English Commercial Register. Böhm himself seemed to be the CEO of many of these companies, in partnership with another of people closely related to the case. These companies are said to have ties with both Alfred. D and Elfriede. S and their own Austrian based companies, creating a network. It is within this network, across international borders, that Böhm is said to be disguising his further, fraudulent actions by channelling his accountancy through the books of his partners businesses.
One known example of this, is a UK registered company called MezzaCap Ltd. MezzaCap Ltd hosts Böhm as the managing director and Alfred. D as an executive too. We must note that MezzaCap Ltd at the time of the BitRush fraud, was also a major shareholder in BitRush.
Premises Used by Böhm in the UK
Image Sourced from Google Streetview
You can find evidence of Böhm’s registration of companies at this address, here.
This takes us to the most recent event then, with a court case held against MezzaCap Ltd for its involvement within BitRush by the Canadian Courts. This was backed by the new team at BitRush, who wanted to seek compensation for the vulgarity of the actions imposed by Böhm during his time as CEO of BitRush.
Evidence of all court proceedings can be found here and here.
Within the court proceedings, Böhm continued to behave deviously, denying many allegations and making weak excuses, blaming other people for money laundering and failing to recognise the sheer scale of his deceit. As a part of this, Böhm even attempted to create his own cryptocurrency, in a bid to raise $30 million to help fund his own defensive lawsuit against the new team at BitRush. This was backed by a Vienna law firm but in turn failed to materialise.
This case, eventually continued right through to June 2018, when the Canadian courts upheld a final judgement that found Böhm guilty of his fraud and deceit. As a result of this, Böhm was made to pay out CAD$560,000.00 from MezzCap Ltd and an exchange rate of CAD$0.50 per share was determined by the Canadian courts themselves. MezzCap Ltd’s shares within the initial BitRush project have also been cancelled. An additional CAD$225,000.00 was charged to Böhm to cover the legal fees of a case that has continued through the year.
This isn’t the end.
It is now expected that BitRush will seek to impose criminal proceedings on Böhm, and his partners with the hope that all three will eventually serve jail time, for their utter deceit, and lack of contempt during their time and through the scams and lies at BitRush, MezzCap Ltd and the various other companies all held under Böhm’s name.
